


A World Without Heroes

by Andrella07



Category: Resident Evil (Movieverse)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Clairice Aberfield, Dark, F/F, Feels, Gore, Romance, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 11:21:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 25
Words: 56,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8246990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andrella07/pseuds/Andrella07
Summary: Alice has turned her back on a world ravished by the T-virus. Life is a day to day, cold and lonely affair, filled with nothing but compulsive deeds and selfish acts - until her compassion is awakened by the one woman she would die for.





	1. Time for a Change

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally published elsewhere. It has undergone some minor edits, but the core of the work remains the same. Inspired by "A World Without Heroes" by KISS. As always, I hope you enjoy.

_a world without heroes is like a world without sun_  
you can’t look up to anyone without heroes  
a world without heroes is like a never ending race  
is like a time without a place  
pointless thing devoid of grace  
where you don’t what you’re after  
or if someone’s after you  
where you don’t know why  
 – you don’t know –  
in a world without heroes

_a world without heroes is no place to be  
it’s no place for me_

_KISS_

 

If not for the date displayed in crude dashes on Alice’s Armitron watch, she would have had no idea what day it was. As it was, the device read: **THU 8-27**. Below that was the time, and that - the sun-bleached blonde could not live without knowing: **17:53:46**. It was a sort of tic she’d developed, and it was so bad that she had even taken to guessing the time by the position of the sun and checking it against her watch. Practice had made her skilled enough to estimate within ten minutes of the actual time. She was constantly hounded by other compulsions and, not surprisingly, a fair amount of paranoia - compliments of the apocalyptic world she inhabited.

Alice looked at her watch again. **17:56:33**. In four minutes an Umbrella satellite would zero in on the backwards Colorado town she was nearby, and she would have to remain hidden for approximately the next five to avoid detection. The woman was certain that she was still being hunted, even though it had been three years since her escape from the corporation in Detroit.

The shack she had holed up in was cramped with the presence of her motorcycle. Alice tapped her fingers on the old workbench she was sitting on. She crossed and uncrossed her legs in anxiety. _Be still,_ she said in her mind, and her fingers and legs relaxed. The woman had already gone through the building for useable items. The immediate area had been picked clean by other scavengers, but that was okay. Alice learned early on that she didn’t need much to survive.

Her first year alone was spent in a deep depression, and it was then that she discovered she could go long periods of time without water, or food, or even sleep. For as long as she could get away with it she did none of those things normal people needed to do to stay alive. She eventually found that she had to keep some kind of schedule to remain functioning. She drank water once a day and ate every other. Sleep, however, was much more sporadic.

After killing Angie in cold blood, Alice’s life could hardly be called living. In her misery the woman tried to help the survivors she came across, but she found more and more that the faces of those she met started to show the signs of despair. Eventually, they were completely devoid of hope altogether, and Alice stopped coming to the aid of those who called for it. Many nights were spent listening to transmissions from survivors pleading for rescue, food, water, and companionship… Alice coolly ignored them all.

The only item in the shack that was of any use to her was a pair of black-leather gloves, because she refused to let anything other than black clothes adore her unmarred skin. The woman had on a thin cami, over that was a sleeveless and zipped-up hoodie. Alice had the hood on now, as she often did, and her highlighted locks peaked out of the edges in a light curl. For practicality, she wore a leather jacket and a pair of black jeans that were in fair condition. Her feet were incased in jet-black leather boots stolen from a corpse a year and a half ago in Tennessee. She worked hard to keep them in working order by regularly oiling the leather and mending them as needed. The steel-toed shoes were arguably her most prized possession.

_Alice left the deserted roadway in hopes of finding some fuel after she spotted a biker bar. Gasoline was always in short supply in one place and abundant in others. Areas that were crowded with undead tended to have the most supplies – if you wanted to brave the horde to get them. This town used to have a fair amount of infected before Alice drove in on her BMW that morning. So, the blonde was miffed when she explored the vehicles in the parking lot for fuel and found none. Defeated, Alice entered the building to crash for the night, certain that the place would only be good for the roof over her head._

_The floor was littered with broken glass, dirt, and turned over barstools, but aside from that the place was remarkably intact. Alice even found a few unharmed bottles of liquor; two fifths of whiskey and one of tequila. She hadn’t had a single drink since the outbreak. In the beginning, the opportunity had been there but she refused it under the guise that she wanted to keep a clear head. Later, the opportunity had already been taken from her by the desire of others to drown their sorrows. But now, she had something to drown and clear-headedness was overrated._

_It was **23:11:46** when she opened the first bottle of whisky. She wasn’t sure what kind of effect the alcohol would have on her altered blood, but she took to finding out with unguarded enthusiasm. The entire fifth gave her a buzz, and she basked in the absence of her troubled thoughts. The second bottle impaired her judgment enough so that she drank a third, this time tequila. By now, the woman was stumbling around as she ventured through the bar looking for more of the precious liquid. She went back to the locked door she’d found earlier and carelessly kicked it in. _

_Alice staggered inside what she’d expected be a storage room, but it was actually a living space with a dresser, mini-fridge, and a small bed. On the spring mattress was a corpse showing signs of only a few weeks of decay. The smell alone should’ve made her gag, but she’d become desensitized to the scent of rot long ago. The man was mature, in his late 40’s, with a pistol clenched tightly in his right hand and a bullet hole in his head to match._ Sucks to be you, you fucking bastard, _Alice thought as she looked the man over with her flashlight. He had been the stereotypical biker when he was alive with a whitened goatee, facial scars likely induced from bar fights, leather clothes, and obsidian, silver-buckled, leather boots._ Nice boots. Mind if I borrow them? Of course you don’t, _she thought as she walked up to the man to strip him of his shoes. The leather constructs came off the shrunken feet with ease, and Alice replaced her worn boots with the new ones. They were an incredible fit._ Have to wash the stink out, _she reasoned as she left the room to sleep for the night._

 _When she woke the next morning, she was happy to find that she had no hangover but puzzled at the appearance of new shoes on her feet. Alice had never robbed a corpse before. She maneuvered her foot as she looked at the metal buckle wrapped around the ankle of her right boot._ I look damn good in these, _she thought, and with that Alice made stealing from the dead -a thought once so abhorrent to her- fair game._

**18:07:16**

It was now safe for Alice to venture back outside. She grabbed the handles of her bike and steered it into the chilled mountain air. The high elevation robbed her lungs of the oxygen it craved, but that was something else she could do without for long periods of time compared to other people. Bullets were what truly sustained her, not to mention the guns that used them. She’d made it her mission in life to exterminate all of the cannibals from the planet, but it was an entirely selfish gesture. Alice had not a care in the world that her undertaking helped those who still lived. She simply knew it as a way to pass the time…and after her empathy disappeared, she enjoyed it.

 _What now?_ Alice wondered. She was low on ammo, so she decided a resupply was in order before night fell. At the base of the mountain beneath her was an average-sized town that was not totally emptied of resources, hopefully.

She rode her motorcycle along the descending mountain road at speeds much faster than necessary. The way she was driving was down-right reckless. So far, she had recovered from every single injury she acquired rather quickly thanks to the T-virus flowing through her veins, but that didn’t stop her from trying to find ones she wouldn’t heal from. It was sick, she knew, but she relished in the pain because it was always over too fast. Alice didn’t just flirt with Death – they had a full on relationship, and the sex was to die for.

The blonde entered the town slowly, though. She noted that building after building was decorated with boulders; a commonplace practice in mountain towns aimed to attract tourists, but she found it to be tacky. Amongst the urban decay were sparse signs of nature and growth. The few pines and fir trees that were scattered on the road she had just passed could be counted on one hand. This place was just like every other settlement she passed through: desolate, abandoned, nothing but destruction and disrepair – she was home.

She’d spent the last month entirely in the mountains, and she longed for a good kill. Cities were her best bet to run into the infected, but this place was more inactive than most. She thought the noise of her bike would at least attract a few, but there were no bloody, staggering corpses coming her way. The only bodies around were rotting on the side of the road, and there weren’t many.

Disappointed, Alice drove through the streets looking for a department store that wasn’t completely raided. Luck was with her. About thirty yards down the road was a gun shop, and if she didn’t know any better, she’d say that the place was being kept up. _Impossible,_ Alice thought, _no one could’ve survived by staying in one place._ Then again, the blonde hadn’t seen a single infected. If there was still someone in this town, then they had been cleaning it out of the undead.

She was about to turn back and leave, deciding that finding ammo was not worth running into strangers, when the wind changed directions. She heard the rumble of another engine and slowed her bike. When she stopped, she set out her feet to hold the vehicle in place and listened. Alice tried to place the sound and found that it was coming from in front of her. Suddenly, a yellow Hummer turned the corner dangerously fast. It came off of its right-side wheels slightly, and as they found the pavement again, the front wheel popped. The vehicle continued down the road she was on, but it was losing speed as the rubber from the blown tire was stripped from the metal rim.

Alice was panicked. She wasn’t certain what to do until she saw the undead clambering up the hood of the vehicle and that behind it was a horde of at least thirty giving chase. The hooded-blonde grinned with deviance as she drove her bike off to the side of the road past the armory. She dismounted and drew her black-matte pistols from the holsters on her lower back.

The vehicle hit the brakes right in front of the gun store causing the undead hood ornament to fly onto the pavement and roll away, contorting its limbs into ways that would make any living person scream. Alice set off at a sprint toward the horde, completely ignoring the Hummer and its passengers. As she neared the undead her blood began to sing. Alice had no other words to describe the way the blue liquid tingled inside her veins in the presence of infected. It was no doubt the aspect of a predator, and she wondered if her prey felt anything at her appearance.

She had ten shots and that was it, but Alice wasn’t the least bit concerned. The undead turned their attentions to her and rushed. She expelled the bullets in rapid fire, unblinking as the metal left the chambers of her guns with a loud explosion. Ten pulls of a trigger later, and ten undead were out of commission. However, an upwards of twenty were still on their feet, and they were closing in.

With a sadistic smile, Alice lowered her guns and considered if now was the time to try her new idea inspired by a rockslide she’d caused a few weeks ago. _Why not?_ Alice questioned rhetorically and felt her pupils dilate from the pressure in her skull. Tiny pebbles no bigger than marbles lifted from the side of the road around her. She let them float in the air for a moment as she focused on her targets. Alice shot them out and watched as they entered the brains of the infected and instantly brought them down.

A few of the undead survived the assault because the red sandstone they were hit with burst upon impact. _Hm, I’ll have to be a little bit more particular about rock selection,_ she realized as she prepared to take the last ones on with her bare hands. She holstered her guns, but for some reason the remaining infected ran right past her. Alice turned and saw that they were going for the two new targets that had emerged from the Hummer. _Oh, no you don’t. I’m not through with you, yet,_ she thought and used her mental powers to put three more rocks into the air. This time she wanted to see what she could away with. The rocks were no longer pebbles, but the boulders that were placed outside the gun shop for decoration. She shot them forward as fast as she could and then released control.

They hit the infected like a train, dashing their brains out and then continued on their flight. Alice’s vision shifted from the falling bodies to the passengers of the vehicle now in the path of the projectiles.

She made eye contact with a redheaded woman and swiftly flexed her mental abilities to make the boulders drop to the ground before they impacted with her. The unexpected exertion caused Alice’s nose to bleed. She wavered on her feet but remained standing. There was something in the woman’s green eyes. She’d seen it before, but Alice couldn’t place it.

Alice wiped away the blood from her nostril, leaving a red smear on the back of her hand. She walked to collect her motorcycle and leave, but before she could start the engine, the redhead called out to her.

“Wait! Don’t go.”

Alice’s shoulders fell in resignation of the request as she looked up at the strangers she’d been trying to avoid. She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t just driving away, then she remembered… Hope. There had been hope and a spark of life behind the redhead’s gaze, and Alice craved to see more of it.

She dismounted the bike and looked at the survivors. The redhead was joined by a young blonde no older than 15. As far as Alice could tell, the older woman was armed with a handgun and a rifle slung over her back, and the teen had no weapons at all. The two were dressed conventionally for the apocalypse. The girl was in jeans and an olive green vest over a brown shirt, but she was decorated more like a klepto with colorful bracelets, necklaces, and mismatched earrings. The other woman was also in jeans, a tan leather jacket, and similar boots. Her only unique accessary was a warn ball cap that she had on backwards.

Alice tightened the muscled in her abdomen, forced her shoulders back, and lifted her chin. The subtle adjustments to her posture instilled the message that she was not to be trifled with. Her blood was still humming, but she ignored it. The two strangers approached her, and she saw that they did so with slight apprehension, but the redhead kept the pistol in her hand at her side. They stopped their advance a few yards from the woman next to an old car abandoned in the road, close enough to speak and far enough to run.

The taller woman looked past Alice and her lips upturned softly.

“Is that your bike?” the redhead asked, a bit of excitement lilting her words, but Alice tensed and the woman backtracked. “We’re not gonna steal it or anything, relax.” Alice flared her nostrils in response, her nose almost twitching into a snarl but the redhead didn’t notice. “I’m Claire, and this is K-mart.” She nudged the young girl next to her with her shoulder. “We’re both very grateful for your help.”

 _Help? I didn’t help…_ Alice thought as she looked down in contemplation. She brought her eyes back up quickly, fighting the urge to question her decision and appear distracted.

Suddenly, the undead that had been thrown from the Hummer a few yards back was crawling around the car. Its twisted limbs managed a fast approach that was remarkably silent, considering. Alice merely watched as it drew closer to the pair. She assumed Claire would stop it, but the redhead continued talking.

“So, what’s your name?” Claire waited patiently for a moment. “Don’t tell me I have to name you, too…”

Alice’s eyebrow raised as K-mart’s shoulders moved in a silent giggle.

Deciding that she didn’t like the idea of being named after a department store, the she answered, “Alice. My name is Alice.”

Claire smiled, and the fiend was about to be upon them. Alice may have saved them unconsciously before, but this time she would not. She’d been given enough time to consider this decision unlike the gut-reaction that stopped the boulders earlier.

“It’s good to meet you, Alice. What you did back there…” Claire was at somewhat of a loss to describe it. “It was amazing.”

Blonde eyebrows knitted together in confusion. She’d been called many things – ‘amazing’ had never been among them.

The infected looked as if it was about to go for Claire’s booted foot. The high leather would be protection enough – not that Alice cared, but then the undead shifted to bite the teen who would not be able to rely on the defense of her tennis shoes and jeans. Incisors could tear through denim material with sufficient force, and the human jaw had strength in excess.

Alice mentally sighed as she whipped back the right side of her coat to quick-draw her knife and sent the fixed blade into the forehead of the creature. _Better to kill one undead now, than have to deal with two later,_ she reasoned after stopping the girl from joining the countless ranks of the infected. The body collapsed to the pavement as Claire gasped in shock, aiming her pistol too late to be of any use.

Claire lowered the weapon back to her side, and K-mart moved in to wrap her hands around the redhead’s elbow. The teen seemed to tremble as she looked at the black hilt sticking out of the corpse’s skull.

Taking a deep breath, Claire looked back at Alice. “Thank you for that,” she said with gratitude.

“You’ve got a flat,” Alice responded awkwardly as she looked over at the Hummer.

“A flat?” Claire questioned, rhetorically. “I don’t even have a tire. Luckily, I have a spare. What I don’t have is a jack.” She sighed, and Alice thought for a moment.

“You won’t need one.” She walked past the two survivors who tensed slightly at her passing. She approached the yellow vehicle, reached underneath it, and lifted it about a foot off the pavement. Claire watched, impressed.

“I could definitely find reasons to keep you around.” Alice lowered the Hummer back down as the woman continued, “So, how about it? Do you want to stay with us for while?” Alice bit the inside of her cheek, and then Claire amended her question. “You don’t have to decide now, but at least stay the night.” K-mart nodded with enthusiasm. “We’ve got this gun shop set up pretty nicely. You’re welcome to take whatever you need, within reason, and leave whenever you want.”

Alice brought her wrist up to check the time. **20:49:17** She hadn’t realized it was so late. Glancing west, she saw that the sun was close to dipping below the mountain-covered horizon, robbing them of precious daylight.

“It is getting dark…”

Claire looked behind her at the setting star and agreed. “That it is. Come on.” She motioned for Alice to follow her inside of the store. Alice walked over to the undead and pulled out her combat knife with a sickening, slick noise. She wiped the coagulated blood on the dirty shirt of the corpse and re-sheathed it; then turned to join Claire. K-mart grabbed a duffle bag from the Hummer and rushed to catch up.


	2. Forever Late

Claire repositioned her hold on the pistol as she walked up to the door. Alice was tempted to put a hand on hers; then she remembered that both were empty. Her other firearm was resting inside a saddlebag on her bike. Alice kept a steady eye on Claire who now had out a flashlight, watching for any signs that she would turn on her, but all Claire turned was the doorknob.

Walking inside with K-mart on her heels, Claire’s light bounced around the foreign space. Alice stayed in the doorway; the sunlight spilling in behind her wasn’t enough to illuminate the building, so she waited. She wasn’t about to walk into something unprepared. When beam of Claire’s flashlight stopped moving, Alice’s eyebrows knitted in confusion until a fluorescent light began to shine, bathing the room in dramatic shadows. Claire had a lantern in her hand, and she set it on the countertop behind her; then shut off her flashlight.

The interior of the store was decked out, as such a shop should be, with guns. Weapons of every make and caliber, from hunting to self-protection, were lined up against the south wall and encased inside the glass counter. The majority of the shelves in the store had been dismantled and maneuvered so that they covered the windowless walls. They were filled with supplies, but Alice only cared about the red and yellow boxes of ammunition that completely took up one rack.

_Now, that is what I’m talking about._ Alice walked over to the shelf and started picking through the boxes for the bullets that matched her weapons. She took out each of her double action pistols and loaded them with 9mm shells. When the clips were full, she picked out a few boxes of rifle cartridges for the disassembled gun outside and stocked up for her handguns as well.

Claire approached her, the gun she had out earlier was holstered and the rifle was no longer on her person. K-mart had the weapon taken apart in her hands and was cleaning it thoroughly. The sight reminded Alice a little of herself.

“So,” Claire interrupted Alice’s thoughts. “You up for changing that tire?”

“I have to move my bike,” Alice responded without answering the woman’s question.

“You can bring it in here.”

Alice strutted out the front door, unconcerned as to whether Claire was following her or not; she was. The sun had disappeared completely, but Alice’s eyes adjusted well to the night.

Beside the yellow Hummer, Alice waited as Claire retrieved a tire-iron and a spare wheel from the back. Claire carried the weight in her arms to the front of the vehicle and set the extra tire down.

Alice lifted the SUV without a word, and Claire set out like a professional. Flashlight held between her teeth to shed light on her work, her hands moved deftly to remove each of the nuts, the blown tire, and then replace it with the new one and reset the nuts. The action took only minutes, but Alice’s muscles were quivering by the end of it.

“All right,” Claire said. “All done.”

Alice placed the vehicle back down and began to walk to her bike when Claire stopped her with a hand. Had her reaction time not been dulled by the exertion she’d just put her body through – the redhead would be flat on her back with Alice’s knee digging into her stomach while the blonde’s hands found their way to her neck. As it was, she could only jerk away from the touch.

“Sorry,” Claire apologized for startling Alice. “I just wanted to thank you for saving K-mart’s life. I don’t know what I would do without her.”

“She means that much to you?” It was less of a question and more a statement of disbelief, but Claire seemed to take it as something else entirely.

“Yes…” Claire looked down, and Alice couldn’t read the expression on her face. “Whatever you want,” Claire brought her gaze back up and met Alice’s stare, “it’s yours.”

Just like that, Claire turned and went back into the gun shop, leaving Alice to wonder.

_Did she just – offer herself to me?_

Claire didn’t seem the type to submit to anyone, let alone feel like she owed someone something, but perhaps Alice had misjudged her.

The idea of fucking the redhead thrilled Alice. Her mind wandered down a dark road of the kinds of pleasure and pain that she could illicit from Claire, whether she truly wanted it or not. Claire was a beautiful woman, and no doubt quite responsive in bed – all means to a very satisfying end. Since the outbreak, Alice’s body had remained practically untouched, but perhaps that would change tonight. She checked her watch as she walked to her vehicle. **21:05:14**

Alice put her bike in neutral and rolled it into the shop. The fit through the doorway was a bit tight, but she managed and maneuvered the vehicle so that it was out of the way. She took a minute to map out her surroundings and get a better feel for the place.

The space was only about as large as a house, but with the shelves not in the center of the floor, the area looked much bigger. There were two twin-size spring mattresses pushed together on the tile behind the gun counter. It confirmed what Alice already knew – the teen was needy, but she had to admit that she could see the strategy of sleeping behind the counter. People were at their most vulnerable when they slept. Lying out of sight was safer. In a far corner, a table was placed up against a wall with two white, plastic chairs set on either side of it. The shelves she’d ignored before were full of canned goods, some clothes, extra blankets, a first aid kit, cases of bottled water, a few closed containers, and a couple of backpacks. Alice reasoned that the bags were full of a little bit of everything – in case the two needed to make a quick run for it.

Alice wasn’t impressed, but she did think a little better of the survivors. Claire had done well with this Hell she’d been given. Most fared much, much worse. Alice didn’t know how many times people starved or died of dehydration in the beginning of the outbreak because they didn’t prepare.

She emptied her pockets of the ammunition boxes and placed them inside one of the saddlebags on her bike. K-mart was still using an oiled cloth to rub down the barrel of Claire’s rifle. Claire was moving about the store, appearing to keep busy, but Alice couldn’t say she was doing anything productive. She almost seemed nervous.

As if in response to the Alice’s noticing of Claire’s lack of purpose, Claire walked up to her guest, careful to keep her distance.

“We’ve got plenty of food, if you’re hungry.”

Alice compulsively checked her watch for the time; she felt that she couldn’t respond until she knew. The numbers left her memory the second Claire lifted an eyebrow at Alice’s bizarre action.

“I’m not,” Alice finally managed to say. She had eaten yesterday.

Claire shrugged, walked over to the table, and took a seat. She withdrew a small red notebook from of an inner pocket in her jacket, and then pealed her leather coat off to set it on the back of the chair. Claire opened the notebook and grabbed the pen resting inside it. Alice’s eagle vision picked out pieces of maps taped to the pages.

Suddenly, K-mart rose from the floor, placed Claire’s reassembled rifle on top of the gun counter, and went back to a shelf to collect a book. To Alice, it looked like an earth science textbook of some sort. _Everyone’s doing homework, now?_ she questioned. Her curiosity was peaked.

Alice tread softly, removing her hood, and sat in the chair opposite of Claire.

“What are you doing?” Alice asked.

“Oh,” Claire slammed her notebook shut. “Nothing. Just, um…writing, you know?”

_She doesn’t trust easily,_ Alice thought, _but if that were the case – why let in an outsider? Especially someone… of my caliber._ She couldn’t discern Claire’s intentions; she was so out of practice in the art of reading people. Then again, before the outbreak, she had always been fooled.

Alice broke away from her inner monologue to see Claire staring at her. She shifted in her chair uneasily as Claire spoke.

“You have such a gift.” She looked on wistfully. “If I had your abilities, I would use them to protect the ones I love.”

_There’s no such thing as love,_ Alice thought. _There is lust and desire, and when the night ends even those will be gone._

Claire removed her ball cap and ran her fingers through her hair. She let them sit in silence for an entire minute before speaking again

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

_No,_ Alice thought as she shrugged.

“That’s okay. I can talk enough for all three of us.” Claire called to the teen across from them. “Isn’t that right, K?”

K-mart looked up from her book and smiled.

“She doesn’t speak?” Alice questioned, and Claire’s voice softened.

“No, not since the day I found her.”

Alice opened her mouth and closed it again. She had no idea what to say, and her lips were dry. Claire saw her hesitation and smirked.

“Do you have any ChapStick?” Alice asked, and it caused the other woman to laugh.

“ChapStick? Actually, I think I do.”

Claire rose from her chair, walked over to a shelf, and pulled out a small, light-blue tube from a backpack and gave it to Alice. The blonde was careful not to touch Claire’s fingertips as she took it from her. The waxy balm was soothing, but Claire was not as cautious in avoiding Alice’s fingers as she took the ChapStick back. Their skin touched and it sent shivers down Alice’s spine. Claire was absolutely gorgeous, and Alice knew her own looks were just as attractive.

Claire’s naked skin was probably soft to the touch, her breasts firm, her lips warm and delicate; and Alice thought, _I need to have her. Need?_ Alice didn’t _need_ anybody. In fact, there was only one thing she needed: to be alone. She was on her feet and at the exit in under a few seconds.

“Alice – wait,” Claire requested, but the outsider was already out the door.

The air was chilled, but Alice’s overactive blood kept most of it at bay. She’d left her coat draped on her bike, but she still had on her hoodie, so she pulled the fabric back up over her head.

_Why am I here?_ Alice thought as her gaze found the North Star. Before she could answer, Claire opened the door and stepped outside. She already had one arm in her jacket and was putting the other one inside the free armhole, as she walked to Alice and spoke.

“Are you okay?”

_That’s an odd thing to ask somebody,_ Alice thought in reply. True, it was commonplace before the outbreak. Statements like: ‘How are you?’ were merely customary introductions that had lost their merit because the only acceptable answer was: ‘I’m fine. How are you?’

Claire was still waiting for a response, her head cocked lightly to the side in concern. It was more compassion than Alice had directed at her in years. It was unsettling and at the same time, it made her realize something. Alice had jumped the gun before; she didn’t need Claire – she _wanted_ Claire.

She caught the woman’s gaze and held it as she advanced on Claire with the elegance of a predator. She used one hand to push Claire up against the store wall and claimed her lips, forcefully. Alice was just as quick and rash to grope Claire’s chest. She could feel the Claire’s nipple stiffen beneath the fabric of her shirt at the touch. Alice hadn’t expected Claire to fight it, so she was taken by surprise when Claire shoved her away.

“God-stop! Get the fuck off me!” she screamed. Her green-eyed stare was furious.

“You said I could have anything I want for saving K-mart’s life,” Alice quoted coldly.

“I didn’t mean _that._ ”

Claire may not have shunned the advance, but her body was up for the betrayal. Alice could tell that Claire’s breath was ragged; her heartbeat had been elevated when the Alice’s hand was on her breast.

“Do you honestly think you can do _anything_ to stop me from taking what I want?”

Claire un-holstered her pistol and aimed it at Alice in swift action.

“I already stopped a boulder,” Alice argued with a grin. “What makes you think I can’t stop a bullet?”

Truthfully, she had never tried, but she was confident that it could be done. It wasn’t everyday she faced off with another human.

**_2:35PM_ **

_Alice let her left wrist fall back to her side. It had already been six months since the outbreak, and the world was in utter chaos. Governments crumbled from the inside. Morals fell to the wayside as everyone looked out only for themselves. People joined the horde by the thousands every day; decimating the human race to small pockets of warring factions. Gangs and brigands ran rampant in areas that weren’t part of police states, taking everything they could. No one was working together to contain the infection._

_Alice had picked up a transmission from some survivors hiding out in a farmhouse in Ohio. They were pleading for rescue, and she was close to the location. She parked her motorcycle next to a dying pasture and looked out at the degraded barn and homestead. She couldn’t see or hear any movement. More than likely, everyone was already dead._ Forever late, _Alice thought._

_She withdrew a pistol as she approached the house to check it out, just in case her initial impression was wrong. Like Alice had suspected, the house was full of only corpses. She went to survey the barn, and her blood remained silent. She walked cautiously through the large, open barn door. Her eyes took a second to adjust to the darkness inside, and then her stomach clenched._ Shit. _Alice tried to run but she was surrounded._

_The armed men took steady steps to encircle her. The group was grungy; no better looking than escaped convicts. There were seven total, and every single one of them was smiling like a deviant as they undressed her with their eyes._

_“Back off!” Alice shouted and aimed her gun at who she deemed was the leader by his smug appearance. Before she could fire, one of the men behind her hit her in the back of the head with the butt of his shotgun. The blow caused her to falter, but she remained standing. She brought her gun back up and shot at one of the men. She was too dizzy to tell if her bullet found its mark, but suddenly, another shot rang out._

_The bullet pierced her lower abdomen, and she fell backwards to the ground. Blood seeped haphazardly onto the straw littering the dirt-floor. Alice heard one of the men speak._

_“I’m not fucking another corpse. Take her shit, and let’s go.”_

_Two of them approached her and groped her for all that she was worth. They stole her guns, her knife, her watch, and got to cop a few feels while they were at it. All Alice could do was concentrate on the dry, yellow stalks digging into her back._

_They left her to die, but she never did. The T-virus worked to repair the damage, and in half an hour she was staggering to her feet. Alice swallowed dryly and looked at her wrist for the time, but it was bare._

Claire’s eyes narrowed as she kept her gun trained on the other woman’s heart, and Alice continued harshly.

“What makes you think I won’t just send it right back at you?”

Claire lowered her weapon in surrender but kept her chin raised in defiance, and Alice chuckled. Alice’s smile, however, fell at her next thought.

_Why am I still here?_

All of this was a mistake; Alice not just driving away at the approach of the Hummer, stopping those boulders, saving the girl…deciding to stay.

Alice walked back to the door, and Claire asked with apprehension, “What are you doing?”

“Leaving.”

“For good?”

_Yes,_ she thought but would not dignify her with an answer; she just twisted the handle and walked inside. K-mart was still reading on the floor, but when she looked up at Alice, there was kindness on her face. The girl stood, approached her with no fear whatsoever, and held out a closed fist as if to give her something.

Alice slowly held out her palm and a colorful bracelet fell from the teen’s hand into it. She didn’t know what to think, let alone what to do. Suddenly, she was pulled from her confusion when the teen wrapped her arms around Alice in a tight hug. She froze until K-mart released her a moment later.

The girl sat back down at her spot on the tile, and Alice looked at the gift in her hand. _I don’t understand,_ she thought as Claire appeared behind her.

“She doesn’t want you to go,” Claire said, causing K-mart to look up at Alice in anxiety and confusion as the she finished, “and neither do I.”

“Why?” Alice demanded.

“You can keep us safe. You can keep _her_ safe – so much better than I can.”

_So, you just want to use me,_ Alice thought. _Figures._ Everyone else wanted to use her; to take something from her. She had nothing to give, and even if she did she wouldn’t give it freely. The warmth of K-mart’s embrace still lingered though.

Again, Alice gave no reply. She walked over to her motorcycle, pulled out a fleece blanket from one of the saddlebags, and sat down with her back leaning against the bike. K-mart smiled softy at her, but she ignored it. Alice brought the dark fabric up above her shoulders and lowered her head so that the two could not see her eyes beneath the hood.

_Just one night,_ Alice thought. She covertly checked the time on her watch, **21:19:02** , and then feigned sleep.

A few minutes passed in near silence and already Alice was feeling antsy. She was unconsciously tensing random muscles in her body to relieve the stress, but then Claire’s voice interrupted her quiet charade.

“Last call for the bathroom, K.”

Alice didn’t know how K-mart responded until she heard movement by the door. It sounded like someone was scraping something heavy against the tile floor. Alice opened her eyes and tilted her head just enough to see Claire’s tan leather boots in a pose of exertion, and in front of them was one of the shelves laden with supplies. _She’s blocking the door,_ Alice surmised, but she wasn’t doing a very good job. The heavy shelf was hardly moving.

Claire spoke again. “Anytime you want to help, K – feel free…”

The redhead grunted with effort and K-mart moved to get up, but before she could assist her, Alice’s eyes dilated slightly as she contributed her powers to forcing the shelf in front of the door. She didn’t do it to help Claire; she did it because she wanted Claire to know that she couldn’t be contained – unless she wanted to be.

Claire met Alice’s blue eyes and gave her a timid smile when the blockade settled into place. “Thanks.”

Alice left her expression blank and put her head back down. Claire’s footfalls sounded loudly in her ears as she walked past her and, Alice assumed, to the beds behind the counter. Claire addressed the teen again with a certain kind of motherliness.

“Lights out in half an hour. No more of that staying up past midnight ‘cause you simply _had_ to finish the chapter, got it?” Claire paused like she was actually expecting an answer. “Don’t talk back to me, missy.”

That comment caught Alice’s interest. She wanted to see how the teen would react, so she peaked out of the front of her hood to find K-mart shaking her head in amusement. Claire smiled lovingly at the girl, and their playful interaction confused Alice.

It was half an hour on the dot when K-mart finally rose from her spot on the floor and put out the light on the counter. Alice knew because she looked at her timepiece at regular five minute intervals. At exactly **21:53:24** the room was thrown into darkness, but the lack of light could not stop Alice from checking the time. The lower right-hand button on her watch illuminated the numbers for three seconds at a time, and she pressed it constantly.


	3. Ticking Time Bomb

****An hour past midnight, Alice’s sensitive ears picked up whimpering coming from behind the counter where Claire and K-mart had both been sleeping. The noises were soft, as if the crier was still in the throes of a terrifying dream, but Alice couldn’t tell who it was. She heard a few of the mattress springs compress as others expanded, and Claire began to whisper.

“Shh, it’s okay.”

_So, it’s K-mart,_ Alice thought.

“It’s okay, K-mart. It’s all right. I’ve got you.”

Claire’s soothing tones began to infiltrate her consciousness, sending her into a trance and bringing with it a memory Alice had kept long tucked into the recesses of her mind.

_She hardly remembered where they had just been. Carlos, Jill, LJ, Angie, and Alice were all sitting in an SUV driving endlessly into the night. Jill was saying something to her, asking her about a surgery or some other procedure, but Alice couldn’t be sure. Her head was so fuzzy._

_She lost herself for a moment, and when she came to she realized that everyone in the vehicle besides herself and Angie was dressed in black._

_Angie asked one of the men a question from the far back seat. “What time is it?”_

The time? What’s so important about the time? _Alice wondered, and then realized that she was curious as well. She strained to hear the reply, but her mind clouded over. She could feel her head begin to pitch forward._

_“Alice, look at me,” Jill said, but she couldn’t comply. The woman put her hands on Alice’s shoulders to steady her. “Carlos, something’s wrong.”_

_The ex-soldier glanced backwards and asked, “What? What is it?”_

_“I don’t know, she just -”_

_Alice was only able to catch a part of Jill’s answer before she fell into the woman’s lap and finally blacked out. When she woke, everyone was positioned around her on the side of the empty highway. Carlos knelt in the grass next to her. The dew on the ground was beginning to seep through her lab coat and chill her backside. She brought her hand up to touch her forehead and tried to rub away the fog that had been so prevalent in her consciousness before._

_As Carlos spoke, her mind cleared at last._

_“Hey, glad you’re back.” He smiled and Alice returned it._

_It unsettled her to see the Umbrella pin attached to his suit. It reminded her of the trauma she’d been put through in the labs, but she was grateful for what her friends went through to get her._ Friends – I can’t believe I can actually say that I have friends, _Alice thought and her smile grew wider._

_Carlos held out his hand. “Do you think you can stand?”_

_Alice nodded and the ex-soldier guided her to her feet. Jill was instantly at her side to help support her. The strength in her muscles waivered and she commanded them to hold firm; they did so, but only for a moment. Suddenly, Alice felt her eyes contract and somehow she knew control was no longer hers._

_She jerked away from Carlos and reached across to un-holster Jill’s handgun._ What am I doing? _Her finger curled around the metal trigger as she elbowed Carlos in the face with her right arm. He staggered backwards as Alice aimed the firearm at Jill’s chest._ _The woman had only a second to be surprised before she was shot directly in the heart. Carlos cried out, but Alice was already turning to shoot LJ._

_“Alice – no!”_

I can’t stop! _She tried to desperately to keep from pulling the trigger again, but it was to no avail._ I’m sorry, _she thought as she turned her head to sight in the ex-soldier. She could hear Angie screaming to the left of her. Alice watched as her arm reached backwards, lined up with her gaze, and fired at Carlos who was drawing his pistol. He dropped dead onto the grass, and Angie’s cries turned into whimpers._

All my friends… _It seemed like it took ages for her body to acknowledge Angie, but just like before, the gun in her hand moved toward her._ She’s just a little girl. _Her mind couldn’t handle the strain any longer; she’d tried to fight every single one of her actions up until this point, but she couldn’t do it anymore. She couldn’t think about it; couldn’t feel anything – not if she wanted to survive this horror with some amount of sanity._

_The gun became lighter in her grip, and squeezing a trigger had never been easier. The bullet found its mark in the center of Angie’s skull, and the girl fell on top of LJ’s corpse, adding her innocent blood to the mix. Alice stepped right over their bodies as she walked around to the driver’s side of the vehicle. She dropped Jill’s gun and opened the door to climb inside. With the keys still in the ignition, she started the engine and turned the vehicle around to head back to Detroit._

_One thought plagued her as her possessed body drove._ What time is it? _However, she couldn’t peal her eyes from the road to look at the clock above the silent radio, and she hated it. Her knuckles began to grow white around the steering wheel. The muscles in her jaw clenched with exertion. She was getting back control – through anger._

_Alice began to think back to what Umbrella had done to her. The tests, the painful procedures; every needled that was slipped into her sensitive skin – every strap that held her down. They hadn’t used anesthetics or painkillers – not when they tore away her flesh to measure the speed of her skin’s re-growth, not when they pierced her heart with a lancet to see if she would survive, not even when they sawed off her right pinky to witness the extent of regenerative powers._

_She finally looked at the green numbers on the dashboard. **10:07**. _

_Hell help her if even a single lab-coat survived the massacre she was planning._

“Shh, it’s okay.”

Claire’s calming voice drifted back, and Alice found herself quivering beneath the fleece blanket. She had to know the time. Her wrist shook as she pushed the button to illuminate it. **1:13:34**. She watched the seconds tick by until the numbers grew dim again. Alice took a long breath while her body stilled.

_No sleep tonight,_ she thought and continued to listen to Claire.

“Come on, K. Wake up.” There was a pause before she spoke again. “I know – I know…”

_What could she possibly know? Does she know of K-mart’s pain? Is she holding the girl in her arms, trying to soothe the frantic thoughts she suffers through alone because she won’t speak about them?_ For a mere moment Alice wondered what it would be like to have that attention directed to her. _No one would ever do that for me,_ she concluded and dropped the idea from her mind.

“You’re safe, now,” was the last thing Alice heard said to the teen.

_No you aren’t, little girl. You will never be safe,_ she thought and then with an uncharacteristic amount of concern and self-pity added, _not with me around…_

The one aspect of time Alice favored above all was its consistency. Sure, sometimes it felt like it passed slowly, but every second was never longer than the one before, every minute did not stretch past sixty seconds, and every hour finished with sixty minutes. Morning came as the hours went uniformly into the night.

This time when Claire went to move the shelf from the door, Alice did nothing. She simply watched as K-mart and Claire struggled to unblock the exit.

As the pair left for the bathroom, she played with the bracelet the teen had given her. The craftsmanship was actually quite good. The primary and secondary colored wires meshed together in a well-managed pattern. She opened it up and contemplated putting it on as black had become a little dull. Before she could connect the Velcro together on her right wrist, Alice heard gunshots. Her blood began to hum, tempting her to smile.

She shoved the bracelet into her pants pocket and un-holstered both of her Tactical Supergrade pistols. The two survivors burst into the store.

“Alice!” Claire yelled but the wanderer was already at attention. Slamming her back against the door, Claire gave the teen a command. “Grab those bags, K, and my rifle!”

K-mart followed the orders as Alice’s blood went from humming to screaming. It made her heart pound, and she was thrilled to be in her element.

“How many are there?” she questioned Claire.

“Too many.”

_No such thing._ Alice rolled her shoulders in preparation as Claire started to explain her plan.

“We’ve only got one option: run for the Hummer.”

“Run?” Alice mocked. The thought was foreign to her. K-mart handed Claire a backpack and the rifle.

“There are no other exits! We have to go now, or we’ll be trapped in here!”

Now, Alice saw the dilemma. She really didn’t like not knowing what she was up against. Strategy had saved her skin more than once, but it was too late to form a better plan, so she holstered a pistol, unclasped the saddlebags from her bike, and threw them over her shoulder.

Claire opened the door and fired upon the horde with her repeating rifle. K-mart kept close to her as she cleared the front of the store. Alice went after the pair and was struck by the size of the undead group that had amassed. Infected poured onto the street from alleyways between the derelict buildings as others approached from both sides of the street almost as far as the eye could see. There were hundreds, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

Alice had never stayed in one place for very long, but if this was what awaited the people who did, then she would have to rethink her tactics. This was a more efficient way to attract the infected to her for annihilation.

The very immediate area had yet to be overrun, but if the two survivors didn’t get into the Hummer soon – they would not be leaving whole.

Now that Alice could see what faced her, she had a decision to make. She could stay behind and take to her trade with unbridled passion – leaving the survivors to their fate – or she could get in the Hummer. For once, Alice didn’t have enough time. She couldn’t settle fast enough so she started to unload her magazine. She deliberately killed the undead blocking her path to the vehicle, but when she got there, she paused.

Claire was already in the driver’s side with the engine running, and K-mart had left the passenger-side door open for the blonde before she climbed into the back seat. Alice was standing next to the armored Hummer, she looked at the empty seat; at Claire who was remarkably silent. Her green eyes held regret as if she already knew the outcome of Alice’s thoughts. _In another life…_ Alice turned her stare on the teen, and K-mart’s eyebrows knitted together in worry.

“You’re n-not coming?”

The words were rough and a bit malformed, but K-mart had just spoken to her. Alice was about to shake her head in response, but she glanced at Claire first. The woman had a tear on her cheek in reaction to the teen’s voice though she kept her gaze fiercely on road in front of her.

Alice holstered the other handgun as she threw her saddlebags into the vehicle, grabbed Claire’s rifle, and slammed the door. She slid the strap of the nickel-finished gun over her arm and scaled the side of the Hummer, barely making it to the roof before Claire hit the gas. She bent at one knee and strengthened her position, setting the laminated, wooden stock of the rifle against her shoulder. It took no time to line up the silver sights and aim for the closest undead in the way of the moving vehicle.

She fired methodically until the box magazine was empty and began to pull out single cartridges fastened to the gun-strap. Reload, aim, shoot – over and over until their route was clear. Claire sped the vehicle up, topping almost forty miles an hour to try and liberate them from the infested town. The exaggerated wind blurred Alice’s eyes and blew her hood back.

Without warning, Alice was thrown to the roof when Claire slammed the breaks and took a sharp left after a quick right to avoid more undead. _Didn’t learn a damn thing from blowing that first tire,_ Alice thought as she grabbed onto a rail with one hand to keep herself from rolling off.

After the last turn, Alice saw that they were home free and crawled to the edge of the Hummer. She reached down to grab the passenger-side handle, and opened the door. Swinging her legs over, she lowered herself into the vehicle with an overjoyed grin that could only be brought on by excessive violence. As she made it into the leather seat, she closed the door, and pulled off Claire’s silver rifle.

“Next time – I drive,” she said.


	4. Estimated Arrival

“So, where are we headed?” _We?_ Alice questioned as she looked out at the road in front of them. _Did I just say that…and mean it?_

“Northeast,” Claire replied. “K-mart and I were about to leave anyway.”

“Where to?”

“Alaska. It was K-mart’s idea, actually-”

“How did she tell you?” Alice interrupted, not forgetting that the three words spoken to her were the only ones the girl had ever said since Claire found her.

“She wrote it down for me, planned the whole damn thing.” Claire smiled as she shook her head. “Smartest kid I know,” she finished and glanced in the rearview mirror to look at the embarrassed teen. The woman fished out the red notebook Alice saw earlier and handed it to her.

The worn pages opened to her inquisitive eyes. The map she’d seen before was the southeast section of Alaska. Hastily scrawled notes littered the edges remarking on ideas of travel time, alternate routes, and destinations. Other pages were full of logistics; of the reasons why going north was pertinent to survival.

Some of it was past Alice’s knowledge. She knew about guns, martial arts, and survival. Things like life’s role in maintaining Earth’s climate and what the planet would do to compensate for the near extinction was beyond her, but there was one note Alice understood. Underlined and in all capital letters was a statement on the bottom of a yellowing page, it read: _THE UNDEAD WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ATTACK IN WINTER – THEY WILL FREEZE._

It was a thought Alice had before, but she’d never had any use for it. An entire season of ‘vacation’ must’ve seemed like Heaven to the two survivors, even if it was followed by a thaw in spring.

The time and effort that had been put into the journal, coupled with K-mart’s knowledge, was impressive, but that’s what people did at the end of the world. They developed skills; educated themselves. Alice was less into learning and more about adding flair to her murderous arsenal.

She handed the book back to Claire after a few more minutes of examination.

“It’s a sound plan.”

“So, you’ll stay?” Claire asked.

Alice caught K-mart’s move to attention in her side mirror.

“Yes,” she nodded and the girl’s teeth shone brightly through her unrestrained smile. Alice looked at Claire for her response, but before she could give one Alice added cruelly, “I never said how long.”

“I know,” Claire said, her voice even.

Alice turned her gaze back to the land. The elevation before them was rising and evolving into craggy mountain passes with sharp bends, slopes, and climbs in the neglected pavement. There was no doubt in her mind that many of the roads that would take them to their destination the fastest were crowed with impassible obstacles. Years of un-cleared rockslides, erosion, and general ware of the road would make traveling by vehicle difficult – difficult, but not impossible.

Then there was the question of supplies. Alice didn’t know what the two survivors had in the ways of resources, but she didn’t have any cold weather gear to speak of. She would need it on the trip to Alaska…if she even stayed with them for that long, but what else did she have to do?

She could still hunt the infected if she traveled with the pair, and then a thought occurred to her. _They would make perfect bait._ The larger the group of humans, the more attention they received from the undead. Alice could use that to her advantage; she had no qualms whatsoever about the possible sacrifice it might require from her new acquaintances. Alice, however, was confident that she could keep them alive long enough for them to continue to be of use to her. And if things didn’t work out that way… well, it was no skin off her back – just like it wasn’t three months ago.

_“I think I know a way,” Alice said to a young woman whose soft features brightened with every word. “The undead want flesh above all else. If someone were to-”_ Am I really going to do this? _Alice questioned. The woman’s brown eyes were transfixed on hers; she was devouring every word. Alice only had to give her a slight push._ Yes, yes I am. _“If someone were to try and distract them…” She put concern on her face by drawing in her eyebrows and biting her lip. The stranger was eating out of the palm of her hand. “Everyone else could get to safety.”_

_The woman looked down, but Alice already knew she was at her beck and call. “I’ll do it.”_

_Alice smiled falsely._

_“But you have to promise me,” she continued. “Promise me you’ll do what you can to keep them safe.”_

_“I will, Beth,” Alice lied. “But what are you going to do?”_

_“I’ll never be able to make it through the doors without_ them _coming in. No, I’ll have to do something else…”_

_Alice looked up to entrance of the bell tower and Beth followed her gaze._

_“The bell tower,” the dark-haired woman said like she’d just had an epiphany._

_The woman was ironically hell-bent on sacrificing herself in a church._ Look at her, thinking she’s some kind of saint. Saint? Hardly. Another coward, _Alice thought as she looked at the Beth._ Too afraid to do what’s necessary to save her own life.

_Beth smiled kindly at Alice as the rest of her group approached them both. The woman took a minute to explain her plan, and the night grew older._

_“It’s the only way,” she said her voice full of conviction. Her three companions, two men and a pregnant woman, desperately pleaded with her to reconsider._

_Alice tried to remember how she’d gotten herself into this situation in the first place. She’d been asleep; not merely asleep, she’d been unconscious from a serious bout of drinking when this group of survivors had interrupted her newfound haven. The Roman Catholic church was more grandiose than even a few of its ancient counterparts in Italy. Its arches a tad more dramatic, its stained glass windows a little more colorful, and its cross just somewhat overbearing. It was as if the American West was trying to prove itself to the religious leader in Rome. Alice saw it simply as a building; she had no patience for fine architecture and even less for religion._

_The group had burst into the building, undead on their heels. They found Alice resting on a pew, and even though they tried to wake her, she only came to when her blood began to sing. That was what had brought her here; to the woman who was planning to jump from the bell tower in order to distract the undead with her flesh allowing the others to escape._

_“Just because that_ woman _seems to think so –does not make it true!” the taller, bearded man argued._

_Alice tried to keep her face from showing her amusement. She’d been the one who had convinced the woman to jump; just a little suggestion for her own entertainment. Alice hadn’t thought the woman would be stupid enough to actually consider it. Her martyrdom was pathetic._

_“I’m doing it, and you can’t stop me,” Beth said. “Alice has promised to see that you make it somewhere safe.”_

_Alice realized that it was time for her to nod. She kept with her act and did so._

_Approximately ten minutes later, the martyr was taking to the ladder of the tower with Alice climbing up behind her. When they reached the top, wind entered through a large window and slightly swayed the heavy, brass bell back and forth._

_“I’m scared, Alice,” the woman confessed, but Alice felt no pity._

I wonder if I’ll have to push her…

_She gave no reply to Beth. Instead, she walked to the eastern window and looked down at the infected trying to find a way into the church. Beth came up next to her and looked down as well. It was a vertical drop of almost thirty feet straight into the waiting undead. Alice would’ve survived it and had she actually been trying to help she could have; she could have done many things._

_There was no way the girl would live. Alice tried to predict what would happen. The woman would jump, maybe land on some open ground, break her legs – maybe her back or neck, maybe much more. The infected would swarm, tearing her limb from limb in seconds. The noise of the feeding and the smell of fresh blood would attract the rest. It would clear the entrance for moments; hardly enough time for the survivors to escape. That was where Alice was supposed to come in. The plan was that she’d give them cover as they retreated into the night._

_It would not happen that way, however. Yes, Beth would jump and die, the survivors would run for it – they wouldn’t get far. To Alice, it was a game and she’d loaded the deck prior to playing._

_“Do you believe in God, Beth?” It was meant to be a joke, but the woman’s chocolate-colored eyes met Alice’s and scared Alice into believing her rouse was about to be discovered. Beth took ahold of the question and made it so that Alice was on the ledge – waiting for an answer._

_“I have to believe in something.”_

_Alice didn’t have enough time to know what to make of the statement. Beth climbed up onto the windowsill. Her black hair was sent about her face in the high wind as she glanced at the packed area below her again. She was steeling herself for the leap while Alice was steeling herself against laughter._

_“Okay,” Beth resolved. “You can go downstairs now and get the others ready to leave.”_

_“Wait,” Alice said and the dark-harried woman looked back at her in concern. “How will we know when to go?”_

_Beth thought for a moment and gave Alice the answer she was leaning toward. “I’ll yell.”_

You’ll scream, _Alice countered and stepped out of the moonlight as Beth turned back to face the open air._

_She was certain that the woman thought her gone, but Alice waited in the shadows to see if Beth would actually jump. She was itching to check her watch, but she refused to peel her eyes away; too afraid that she would miss the deed if she did._

_Alice watched as Beth’s chest inflated with a deep breath. She held her own, biting the inside of her lip in anticipation. The dark-harried woman kept the air for a few moments, and just like she said, she yelled._

_“Go now!”_

_Beth threw herself from the sill leaving only a clear window for Alice to race to. Alice collided with the raised edge and looked down. The woman’s broken limbs were bent and warped abnormally. She’d landed on an open piece of concrete. The undead were on her like flies on a bloated carcass, and just like Alice thought – she screamed._

_Her painful cries were not to be the only screams of the night. The survivors foolishly left at Beth’s order even though Alice had never met back up with them. They were easy quarries, and now it was time for Alice to mind hers. Once again she was at the top of the food chain. The undead preyed upon humans, and tonight she’d preyed upon them both._

It had been hours since Alice looked at her watch. She’d been content watching the landscape before them. A few miles ago, the two survivors had a small, Spartan meal of carbs and protein followed by the consumption of a few supplement vitamins. Again, Alice refused. She had no worries from things like vitamin deficiencies that led to disease. Her immune system was far more competent than it had been in her previous life.

They’d just passed the Colorado/Wyoming border, and by the sun alone, Alice knew it was nearing the time that she needed to be hidden from the satellite. According to the small device attached to a clip on her belt, the satellite had been switched to the B route. There were five different routes total, all calculated to be the most efficient means to survey Earth.

Normally, she would find some place to hole up and remove all evidence of her presence. There was nothing she could do about it this time, not without giving information away to Claire. Still, she was relatively protected by the Hummer, so long as no one thought to track the vehicle.

**16:30:27**. A few more minutes and the satellite would hopefully be gone. Alice looked at her watch again, this time trying to be discreet but failing.

“Why do you do that?” Claire asked, obviously to Alice because K-mart was asleep in the back seat.

“Do what?”

“Check the time.” Alice didn’t answer, so Claire went on. “It’s seems pretty unnecessary.”

“Things are not always what they seem.”

Claire rolled her eyes at the cryptic reply. “That hardly answers my question.”

“What makes you think I care?”

“You’re a real bitch, you know that?”

Alice looked at Claire and watched as the redhead kept her demeanor perfectly cool. It was clear that she didn’t care in the slightest that she might’ve pissed Alice off. Twisted laughter poured from Alice’s lips and caused Claire to smirk.


	5. Daylight Saving

They pulled off the road an hour before dark. Tomorrow, they’d likely make it to Montana, spend another day traveling through the state, and then be in Canada. Before they could make it to Montana, however, they needed to refuel. They had almost completely cleaned out Claire’s extra supply. The vehicle had a few miles left in it, just enough to make it to the gas station down the road.

Claire wanted to wait until morning to go, though. It was now that Alice really wished she’d had her bike. She could’ve easily driven to the station and back carting fuel with her. _But no,_ Alice complained as the two survivors began to eat dinner. _I had to leave it behind…_

“You’re sure you don’t need anything?” Claire asked again.

Alice looked up from cleaning one of her pistols and answered, “I’m sure. I don’t work the same way you do.” She put more oil on a red cloth and ran it down the barrel once more.

Claire shifted to get more comfortable on the rocky ground, and then leaned her back against the Hummer. K-mart was beside her, voraciously devouring her food like the teen she was. Alice began to reassemble the weapon. When it was put together, she placed it on the boulder she was sitting on and felt Claire’s eyes on her.

“What do you mean?”

Claire’s question made Alice sigh. She knew the inquires would come, it had only been a matter of time. She went for the most generic answer she could give.

“My blood has bonded with the T-virus.”

Suddenly K-mart stopped eating; she slowly put down her camping set dinnerware.

_That’s right, little girl,_ Alice thought as she looked at the teen’s downturned head. _You’ve tried so hard to keep the monsters only in your dreams but didn’t realize there was one ten times worse you’d have to face when you woke._

“You’re infected!” Claire condemned her, and reflexively placed a hand on the pistol attached to her belt.

“No, I’ll never be one of those things.”

“Then how- What…?”

Alice couldn’t really avoid details now, and it was high-time Claire knew what she was dealing with.

“I am Umbrella’s most prized possession. Right before the virus was released upon the world, they took me; injected me with it to see what would happen. I surpassed their wildest dreams. My reflexes, agility, speed, and strength is far beyond that of a normal human. And then there’s my mental proficiency.”

Claire was hooked, and Alice realized that she was enjoying telling this particular tale.

“What happened?”

“The outbreak. The lab where I was kept was abandoned. Mind you – I didn’t like being a lab rat. I broke out and they tried to find me. They did everything they could to bring me back….but I got my revenge.”

A memory of Angie’s face entered Alice’s mind until Claire spoke and the image faded as quickly as it had come.

“Revenge?” Claire asked rhetorically. With remarkable insight, she added, “It sounds to me like you’re thankful for what they did to you.”

_Thankful? Maybe…_ Alice had been caught off guard; she didn’t know what to say.

Claire finished eating, but K-mart didn’t touch her food again while Alice cleaned her other gun.

The night, Alice couldn’t sleep. She fidgeted in the leather seat as Claire and K-mart’s even breathing assaulted her ears. Around four in the morning, she opened the SUV door and should’ve known the noise would be enough to rouse Claire.

“What is it?” Claire asked removing the ball cap that was covering her face. She wrapped a hand around the gun on her waist in preparation.

“Nothing,” Alice responded. “Go back to sleep.”

She could tell that Claire wanted to know what she was up to, but Claire held her tongue.

Alice slipped out of the vehicle and into the waiting night. There was only the light of the stars to guide her, but it was more than sufficient. She walked the three miles to the gas station, not entirely sure why she did so. She made the excuse that it was to make sure the place had fuel, and maybe she would get lucky and run into a few undead on the way.

There was indeed gas at the truck stop, but no infected. Alice leaned up against one of the dust-covered pumps and looked at her watch. **4:58:00**. Her mind drifted and she let it.

She replayed what she thought had been Claire offering herself. _What were her words…‘Whatever you want – it’s yours.’_ It certainly sounded like a proposal. Alice was having a hard time dealing with the rejection. She was angry, but not sure why.

Maybe she could still seduce her though. She would just have to take it slow. Take the time to get a feel for Claire; to find out what she liked and play the part long enough to get what she wanted.

Alice imagined for a moment what would happen if Claire had followed her here. She had no idea why Claire would, but the thought was soothing just the same.

Claire would approach her, maybe tilt her head to the side just like she’d done before, but what would she say? Would concern fall from her lips; pity perhaps? Maybe she would regret asking Alice to stay.

_Can’t say I’d blame her,_ she thought.

Alice heard gravel shift, like it did so beneath a footstep. _Claire?_

She stood up straight and looked toward the noise. A dark figure emerged from around a dying pine tree about twenty yards from the gas station. It wasn’t undead because Alice’s blood was calm. The person moved too gracefully anyway.

It wasn’t Claire though; the figure was too small. After another step, Alice realized it was K-mart.

_Now, that’s a surprise._

She let the teen get within speaking distance before she confronted her.

“What are you doing here?” Alice asked. She didn’t expect answer. K-mart drew nearer still, her eyes staying on Alice as she actually opened her mouth to speak.

“I-I heard you leave.”

The older woman saw the effort it took for the teen to voice her thoughts, but she responded harshly. “Are you stupid, girl?” She looked the teen over for a weapon and found none.

K-mart flinched. “I’m s-sorry.”

“Does Claire even know where you are?” The teen shook her head as tears began to roll down her cheeks. Alice took a heavy breath and tried again. This time she was calm. “Why did you follow me?”

K-mart wiped the tears away and looked up at Alice. “I wanted to t-talk to you.”

“Well, I’m here, so speak.” Alice’s annoyance was coming back to the surface.

“I just wanted to s-say, that I’m ha-happy you’re here. I don’t think you like what Umbrella d-did to you. I th-think it hurts you to be different.” Alice exhaled and tilted her chin up, almost as if she was trying to distance herself from the girl’s sincere words. “I found the alcohol in your pack.” Alice’s eyes narrowed at K-mart’s snooping but the teen continued anyway. “Y-you t-try to drown the pain, you’re cruel, y-you keep people a-away…but,” K-mart paused to wet her throat. “But I don’t think that’s wh-who you are. Y-you could’ve let us die, but you didn’t. You could leave an-anytime, but you haven’t.”

The speech stripped Alice bare. Her eyes glazed over and her body was on the verge of trembling. She fought the emotions, winning out only when she swallowed them back down. K-mart waited patiently for a response.

“You need to get back. Claire will be worried.”

“Are y-you staying he-here?”

Alice thought about Claire; she was probably awake now and frantic at the teen’s absence.

She smiled dimly at the teen. “And have Claire yell at me for not keeping an eye on you – I don’t think so.”

K-mart grinned and began to walk forward with Alice at her side.

The teen’s small strides couldn’t match Alice’s normal pace, so it took them almost an hour to reach the Hummer. Claire was nowhere to be seen, but as they neared the vehicle the she came out from around the back and stopped in her tracks at the sight of them. She fiddled with her hat in nervous relief and immediately approached K-mart. Claire took the teen in her arms.

“Where the hell have you been, K? I was worried out of my mind!” Claire broke the hug, but kept her hands on the teen’s shoulders as she tried to look in her eyes for the answer. Alice thought that K-mart would speak and tell her herself, but she didn’t, she just looked over at Alice and then down at her feet.

Claire gave Alice a fierce gaze, accusation stressed by the harshness of her stare.

_If looks could kill,_ Alice thought.

“Get back in the Hummer, K. I want you to try and get a little more sleep.”

Alice knew that request was bullshit, and she wondered if K-mart did too. The girl complied and left Claire alone with Alice.

She felt the interrogation coming on, so Alice cut to the chase, “What?”

Claire pulled the hat off her head and folded the bill inwards a few times. “Did she… Did she speak to you?” Her anger was gone, like it had never been there in the first place. Instead, Claire just seemed hurt.

Alice nodded and wondered if Claire was going to ask what she said, but she didn’t. Instead, Claire altered her demeanor by squaring her shoulders and changing the subject.

“You said you _are_ Umbrella’s most prized possession. Are they still after you?”

“I’ve evaded them for almost three years, but I’m sure they’re still hunting me.”

“What will happen if they find you?”

“Nothing good.”

Claire looked off in contemplation.

_This is it,_ Alice thought. _This is where I get sent away._

It shouldn’t have mattered to her; she should’ve been happy to leave. It was what Alice wanted from the beginning, but now… Now, she didn’t know what she wanted aside from a stiff drink.

“Well, I doubt I’ll be able to go back to sleep now,” Claire said and she looked east. “The sun is coming up.”

Alice felt confusion appear on her face, but she looked on with Claire anyway. The mountain horizon was changing from a deep blue to grey.

Soon the dull wash would be erased by warm colors. The stars would retreat as they gave way to daylight. Granite peaks would look like erupting volcanoes as the orange beams of the rising sun reflected off the crystal-covered rocks.

And Alice would get to watch it all with Claire at her side.


	6. Spring Forward

Morning found them refueled and back on the road. The day was next to uneventful; the night even more so. Alice took turns driving with Claire, and K-mart mostly kept her gaze out the armored window next to her. Silence was prominent, but it wasn’t uncomfortable like Alice assumed it would be.

The next day, they were still traveling through Montana. Around noon they crossed the Canadian border, and a stop for fuel and supplies was in the books.

The sportsman’s store they pulled into was about as commonplace on the border as boulders had been in Colorado. Once upon a time, Alice imagined the many tourists and locals that would’ve come in to buy fishing licenses and the like. Canadian hospitality had probably made this building full of good cheer and warmth, but when Alice opened the wooden door only the sound of a lonely bell greeted her.

The space was much larger than it looked from the outside. Alice un-holstered a single pistol and felt slightly overwhelmed by the variety of products that lined the shelves. There were vast amounts of lures, fishing poles, and camping gear. Racks of camouflage and hunter-orange clothing were located near the right wall next to the guns.

This place had been exactly what Alice was hoping for before. She would be able to find the winter gear she required, all without realizing the fact that she was planning for the winter months ahead.

Alice entered a few paces, her heart calm until the liquid in her veins vibrated lightly. _Finally, a little action,_ she thought. Claire appeared in the doorway next to her. K-mart had remained in the Hummer just like every time they’d stopped. Alice considered sending her back, but Claire would probably refuse.

“We’re not alone,” she whispered.

The movement of her blood was coupled with a rise in adrenaline as she took steady steps forward. A rancid odor, courtesy of putrefaction, filled her nostrils. Then a delicate moan from a rotted windpipe helped her pinpoint the undead. She lived for this.

According to her altered DNA there were no more than three infected creatures within a twenty-foot radius of her, and one, according to the moan and the smell, was behind the tall shelf on her left.

Alice didn’t focus on being quiet anymore. The fiend already knew there was clean flesh nearby. She turned and went right into an open aisle. Although the undead was excited, it was still sluggish. Alice raised her arm and sent a bullet into the leathery, dehydrated skin of its forehead. The corpse crumbled to the floor as the miniature explosion from her gun attracted the other undead from the back of the store.

She took the one on the left, and Claire the one on the right. The shots were fired in near unison, and with them Alice’s blood stilled.

The next hour was spent in the store gathering supplies. Alice found a coat, snow pants, gloves, and boots that were all insulated and waterproof as Claire collected the same items for K-mart and herself. Next, Alice took the time to retrieve more ammo from the gun section of the shop and even picked up bullets for Claire’s rifle. She got what she required and for free, too. Perhaps Canadian hospitality wasn’t dead after all.

On their last trip to the Hummer, Alice almost dropped her armful of camping tools when her veins jumped under her skin. Something was coming, and it was coming fast. She threw the equipment into the back of the Hummer, only keeping hold of a short, metal hatchet.

She didn’t know where the threat would come from. Her blood was an alert system – not a targeting one. K-mart was still in the vehicle, Claire was still in the store, and Alice was between them both waiting for the danger to make itself known.

From across the road, in a small grove of pines a howl rang out. The pitch of the cry rose and fell before it was joined by a harmony of others. Alice twirled the silver axe in her hand. _Dogs –I hate dogs,_ she vented.

She threw back her hood and shook out her blonde hair as the first beast stalked its way out from behind the green branches of a thick pine. Its bloody, matted hackles were raised in pure aggression as it let out a snarl, showing the white of its fangs. The beast was massive with an elongated muzzle and a thick fur coat the color of frozen mountain peaks. Put simply – it was no dog.

Alice stared into its amber eyes and found a kind of intelligence there. That was another thing she hated. Animals, unlike infected humans, seemed to be smarter. She’d watched an undead marsh hawk search systematically for its next meal. It flew over an area and moved onto the next one, never flying over ground it had already covered. She theorized that it was because they weren’t so far gone from their natural state. Besides personal safety and procreation, food had been the only thing on their minds. Most carnivores already had cannibalistic tendencies. The desire for flesh, even that of their own kind, was never unnatural to them.

The infected beast was swiftly flanked by two others of its kind, and they moved as one to approach Alice at a silent trot. The three broke off, one standing still in front of her five yards away as the others went to the positions of ten and two, and waited. It unnerved Alice to see them showing restraint.

Suddenly, she picked up the sound of nails clicking on cement behind her. It was a trap; the three were merely a distraction. She spun just in time to catch bloody jaws with the handle of her axe before teeth could close around her neck. The black creature gnashed the metal with its canines and then broke away. It joined the rest of the pack to circle her.

Now, there were eight wolves. Alice readied to take them, but the onyx beast that attacked her lifted its nose and took a whiff of the air. Its ears swiveled backwards to listen to the Hummer, before it rotated its head to look. Alice lifted her eyes briefly and saw K-mart looking out. Then another wolf broke from the procession to growl at the entrance of the store. _Shit!_

Alice couldn’t wait any longer; she turned and hurled the axe at the undead animal in front of the building. The hatchet buried itself into the wolf’s skull. As the creature dropped, the black wolf snapped its teeth and the pack struck.

Two wolves on the left bounded for her and a third from her right. Alice kicked the first to reach her in the head, snapping its neck as she pulled out a pistol and shot the next one. The third beast jumped on her shoulder, but she reached back with her free hand. Her strong fingers grabbed it by the paw and threw it to the ground, breaking its foreleg in several places and then its spine.

Five wolves remained, but Alice wasn’t fighting alone anymore. Claire emerged from the store, pistol drawn and aimed at the creature about to spring for Alice’s leg. Claire shot the wolf and continued to fire. Alice or Claire dispersed every infected beast until only the onyx one was still standing. Alice almost shot it, but then it moved so that Claire was between them. She put away her pistol, confident that the other woman could take care of the final threat.

Claire slowly re-holstered her handgun, and in the same steady motion withdrew her knife. The wolf snarled at her.

_What the fuck is she doing?_ Alice thought, and then realized that Claire must be out of ammo. She was only a few paces behind Claire – the wolf at a likewise distance. They lunged at the same time; the beast to kill her; Alice to save her.

Alice knocked Claire to the side, reaching her mere milliseconds before the wolf did. She grabbed the animal, each hand keeping its jowls from snapping shut on her fingers. With pure and quick exertion, she ripped the mandibles apart. The jaw came off its hinges in a gory mess that Alice let fall to the ground as she released the wolf.

There was no way the maimed hunter could kill now, and she was sure it felt no pain, but it still needed to die. It stared up at her, congealed blood falling from its upper jaw and collecting in a pool on the cement. For an instant, she felt a kind of recognition behind its tarnished gold eyes as they both took heavy breaths and their adrenaline faded. In a lot of ways, she was like the wolf. They lived for the hunt and they lived for the kill, even before the creature became infected. The difference being that the beast acknowledged his need for pack, while Alice denied hers.

_Your hunt is over… brother._ With a bullet, she ended the predator’s undead existence.

Claire was still trying to collect herself from the ground when Alice walked over to her and held out her hand, making sure that it was free of infected blood first.

Hesitant green eyes looked at the hand.

“I’m not going to bite,” Alice said.

Claire smirked. “Poor choice of words, don’t you think?”

Alice laughed, and Claire finally took the outstretched hand. Alice pulled her up with a little too much force, and the redhead ended up practically colliding with her. She caught Claire in her arms. For a moment, their bodies were too close.

Claire cleared her throat, and Alice let her go so she could take a step back.

“You okay?” Alice asked. Voicing her concern for another for the first time in years. “I didn’t mean to push you so hard.”

“I’m okay... but I could’ve handled that dog just fine.”

“Are you kidding me? That was no sled team, Claire. Those were wolves!”

Claire met her astonished gaze with amusement. “Why so worried, Alice?” The blonde shut her trap as K-mart exited the Hummer and Claire continued to call her out. “I didn’t think you were the type.”

“I’m _not_ ,” she growled.

“Right,” Claire said with sarcasm.

The teen walked to Claire, and the redhead turned to face the girl as Alice tried to burn a hole in the back of her head with her eyes. _Damn women,_ Alice cursed. _It’s fucking both of them. Both of them have it out for me._

Alice folded her arms across her chest, unconsciously flexing the muscles in her forearms.

“You all right, K?” Claire asked.

K-mart nodded. Claire brought her hand up to muss the teen’s sand-colored hair. She turned back to Alice with one arm around K-mart’s shoulder in a familiar gesture. The pair briefly glanced at each other, and as paranoid as Alice was, she would’ve sworn that she saw a silent agreement pass between them.

_It’s a damn conspiracy,_ Alice thought as they looked at her again, each with a cheerful smile on their seemingly innocent faces.


	7. Fall Back

All packed up, they decided to take back to the road until nightfall. ‘They’ being Claire asking Alice her opinion on their next step, and Alice gruffly complaining about _exactly_ how much she didn’t care.

After pulling over for the night and finishing their evening routines, Alice decided it was time for another walk. Again she hadn’t eaten, not since meeting up with the survivors, or slept for that matter. She wasn’t sure why, so she left to figure it out.

It was getting colder the further north they traveled. By the time they reached Alaska, probably in the first few days of September, the temperature during the day would be in the fifties, and near the forties at night. As it was now, Alice threw on her leather jacket in the foyer of the abandoned, one-room house they’d found.

Truthfully, she was happy they’d stopped and discovered this place. She didn’t want to spend another night cooped up in the Hummer. She only took a few steps toward the door when she was stopped by Claire, who sounded more curious than worried.

“Where are you going?”

Alice’s shoulders fell in annoyance, but she still managed a somewhat civil reply. “Out.” She met Claire’s green eyes and reluctantly added, “I’ll be back soon.”

Before she could move on, she saw K-mart point at her in a silent question to Claire.

Claire sighed as she said, “Fine.”

Alice didn’t wait for K-mart as she walked into the woods opposite the residence, but the teen caught up to her just the same. She pushed through the cover of the forest and laughed as she heard K-mart get tangled in some brambles behind her.

“Following me again, huh?”

_It’s bad enough that I have one shadow..._ Alice thought as she watched the teen free herself.

K-mart didn’t answer so Alice kept on, marching further and further into the dark woods. She put her mind to why she wasn’t keeping her schedule. _I’m just not hungry... not tired..._ Alice was lying to herself, but before she could admit it, K-mart spoke up.

“Wh-what you did back there – with the wolves – it was _awesome_.”

Alice stopped walking and faced the teen as she leaned against a tree, soaking up the praise.

_“Those were some pretty slick moves back there.” Alice kept leading the others as Jill’s comment began to seep in. The black-haired woman approached her and spoke again. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.”_

_“You should be thankful for that.”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_Alice stopped in her tracks to face her accuser. Jill actually did appear to be concerned._

_“They did something to me. I barely feel human anymore.”_

I’m not human anymore, _Alice thought to add, but was afraid too. She was a freak. The T-virus in her blood frightened her beyond belief, but there was an undercurrent of superiority that came with her new powers. She just had yet to fully realize it._

_A payphone began to ring on the wall next to them, drawing their attention._

_“We should keep moving,” she said, “before the sound attracts anything.”_

Alice didn’t reply to the girl.

“I had some questions, if th-that’s cool,” K-mart said. She was sounding more and more like the teen she was. “If you were bitten by someone infected, would you change?”

Alice shook her head, but the teen seemed not to notice because she went on to try and answer her own question.

“I m-mean probably not. You did say you’d never be one of those things, but h-have you tested it out? Not that you’d really want to-”

A very curious teen apparently... who, amusingly enough, was now pacing back and forth as she began to illustrate her words with her hands. Alice was never given a chance to respond to K-mart’s rushed queries.

“Your mental powers – what would you s-say is there extent? I’ve pretty much only seen you shoot those rocks a-and stop the boulders. Oh! Do you think you could use them to enhance your strength or is your strength something separate? I guess that could go for a-all your heightened skills-”

K-mart was about to continue, but Alice cut her off.

“Take a damn breath, girl.”

The teen looked up and found the light smile on the blonde’s face.

Alice watched her smile in return, but then her eyebrows came together in anxiety. Her hazel eyes were fixed on Alice’s when she spoke next; her body completely still.

 “Can you die?”

_Best question I’ve heard yet. I wish I knew, little girl,_ Alice thought pessimistically. _I really do._

Alice decided she was done being interviewed. It hadn’t been fun the first time during the Raccoon City incident, and it wasn’t fun now. She stopped the girl’s inquiries with a taunt that was meaner than it was good-natured.

“You know – for someone who’s supposed to be mute, you talk an awful lot.”

K-mart’s lower lip trembled as she looked down.

_Shit, I’ve made her cry again,_ Alice thought, but she had no idea what to do about it. Comfort was out of the question, it would only encourage the girl.

“As far as I know...” K-mart perked up as Alice continued, “I’m immortal.”

Alice wasn’t sure if she’d rendered the girl speechless again by her previous mocking or by the serious implications of her answer. The teen bit the inside of her lip while the seconds passed uneasily for Alice.

She was forced to look at her watch. **22:22:18**.

“We should get back.”

The two returned to the house to find Claire pacing inside, arms folded over her chest.

“Have a good walk?” she inquired with an inhospitable tinge.

Alice and K-mart merely looked at her in silence, one unwilling and one unable to answer.

Claire threw up her arms. “Fuck it! Next time, _I’m_ taking the walk.” Her voice lowered to a whisper, but Alice caught the jealous words anyway. “You two can stay and be all buddy-buddy… Probably just sit there, not saying a damn word…”

Alice pulled off her coat and lowered her hood as she walked right past Claire and into the dusty living room. She could feel the heaviness of Claire’s stare upon her back. She thought Claire should be envious, but not of the teen’s fondness for her.

A moment passed before Claire spoke again.

“I made up the room for K and I... unless you’d rather have it.”

There was a kind of tone to the last bit of Claire’s statement, and Alice almost thought she was being baited for something. Well, whatever it was, she wouldn’t fall for it.

“No, thank you,” Alice replied. She hadn’t known she was still capable of manners.

Claire’s accompanying smile unnerved her. There was definitely something going on. She could only wait it out and decided that she would do so by crashing on the threadbare couch.

She fell back on the worn cushions as Claire picked up a lamp and left for the bedroom.

“Night, Alice,” Claire said. She wasn’t given anything in return.

K-mart followed her for a moment, but then walked back in the dark. Alice listened to the teen’s steps as they drew near, her eyes closed in mock sleep.

K-mart’s voice came from above her, it was low and soft. “A-Alice, I’m sorry you ca-can’t die. I ca-can’t imagine the loneliness you feel.”

She left, and Alice kept her eyes shut tight against the words. _Stupid girl,_ she argued. _I’m not lonely._

The old couch was too short for her. Her obsidian boots were elevated by an armrest as her head set on the other one, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. She hadn’t bothered to grab a blanket. It was chilly but she could handle it; she wanted to handle it. The slight cold let her focus; better yet, it let her thoughts freeze.

Better not to think at night, better to lie in the dark.

Lying was easy.

Especially, when Alice was cold....


	8. Tale as Old as Time

“No – no – no.... Don’t do this to me, baby. Please....”

Claire turned the vehicle over once more. The engine sputtered briefly to life before it cut out again, leaving only the sound of Claire’s cursing and the smell of burnt rubber.

“God damn it! Fucking two-bit, piece of shit!”

Alice was trying not to laugh in the passenger seat as Claire fell onto her arms on top of the steering wheel. The move of defeat caused the horn to blare and Claire jerked back in surprise. Alice couldn’t hold it any longer. She let out an amused howl causing Claire to turn on her.

“Think that’s funny, do ya? Well, _you_ can go to Hell. I’m the one who’s gonna have to spend all fucking day trying to fix this, and you know what that means?”

Alice stopped laughing as her paranoia took over in reaction to Claire’s deviant smirk. “That means you and K-mart get to go on another walk to find me the parts I need.”

K-mart smiled in the back seat as Alice sighed.

“You know what’s wrong with it?” she inquired.

“It sounds like a bad timing chain, but for once, I really hope I’m wrong. It’ll take me over an hour just to see if that’s the problem.”

“And if it is?”

“I’ll need a replacement chain.” It was Claire’s turn to groan as she said, “Best get to it, the Beast won’t fix itself.”

“You named your car?” Alice raised an amused eyebrow.

“Car? Alice, this is a Hummer H2.” Claire ran her hands lovingly over the steering wheel as she continued. “Vortec 6.2 liter V8 engine, four wheel drive, 393 horsepower.” Her voice dropped an octave as she said, “415 pounds of torque.” Then her words became passionate again. “Winch capacity of over 9,000 pounds, _complete_ off-road capabilities including over nine inches of ground clearance and the ability to drive in two feet of water. It’s a fucking _beast_.”

Claire’s enthusiastic speech had an arousing effect on Alice. The fact that Claire was so fervent about it, and because she bit her lower lip when she caressed the leather steering wheel one last time, drove Alice slightly mad.

_If she wants a beast...._

“Beast it is then,” Alice answered with a knowing smirk.

“That’s right. Considering the motorcycle you were driving, I thought you knew a little about fine machinery, but-”

Alice cut her off, “There’s only one machine I care about, and those are the ones I keep in my holsters.”

“Fair enough.”

They cut the chatter, and Claire set out to work under the yellow hood. Alice didn’t want to wait in the vehicle and neither did K-mart, so they both left as well.

Alice began to pick her nails with a knife out of boredom. After her nails were clean and cleaned again just in case, she began to throw the knife in the air and catch it by the blade with practiced dexterity. She’d yet to start checking her watch, but she was just about to when Claire set down a tool and gave the diagnosis.

“Knew it; bad timing chain. Well, that settles it. We need to get a new one. I think that city we avoided yesterday is probably our best bet.”

 _Naturally,_ Alice thought as she sheathed her knife. The city remarked upon had been too large a metropolis; the risk of running into mass amounts of undead had been too great a chance to take.

“Well,” Claire said as she rubbed her hands together, “ready to go?”

“Hold it,” Alice stopped her. “You two aren’t coming. You two are staying here.”

“Like hell!”

Alice cocked her head to the side, giving Claire an authoritative stare.

“ _We_ avoided that place for a reason, and that reason doesn’t apply to me. I’m going alone – end of story.” She left no room for argument, so Claire conceded with reluctance. She still had to have the last word, though.

“Don’t get the wrong part.”

Alice rolled her eyes.

The city was nearly 60 miles back. She had a long trip ahead of her, but the time was cut dramatically when Claire walked to a trailer down the road and found a covered vehicle.

She threw back the sun-bleached, ragged tarp as Alice observed from a few feet behind her.

“Oh my fucking God!” Claire’s jaw dropped. “No way!”

Alice knew enough about vehicles to appreciate a muscle car when she saw one. The raven black Ford Mustang was sleek and demanding. It screamed, ‘You wish,’ and it was obvious to Alice that Claire did wish.

Claire immediately opened the driver’s side door and sat in the leather seat. Again, her fingers got a feel for the wheel. Alice watched her look for the keys next, but they were nowhere to be found.

“Not a problem,” Claire said to herself as she hotwired the vehicle. “In another life this car would be perfect. Unfortunately, this world is no place for it.”

She was right of course. Practicality would always come before the superfluous, now.

When the two correct wires came together the engine roared to life. The rumble had the presence of a jet engine and Claire sat back in the seat, her smile one of absolute pleasure.

According to the redhead, the 1969 Boss 429 dominated street racing in its day. Alice didn’t mind so long as it got her from point A to point B, and if it happened to indulge her vanity along the way – well, so be it. It obviously made its owner feel important. They must’ve spent every dollar on the car leaving mere cents for their home. The scenario was the epitome of someone who wasn’t well off, but had an obsession with self-image.

It took a while for Alice to persuade Claire to give the vehicle up, but when she finally did, Alice was content to sit in the warmed up seat. K-mart hadn’t been interested in the car, so she went back to relax in the Hummer for a while.

Claire leaned down and set her elbows on the rolled down window as she started to bid Alice farewell.

“Make sure you get the right chain. It has to be for a Hummer H2.”

“I’ll find it,” Alice answered, but she felt like there was something else she wanted to say.  ‘ _Stay safe’ maybe? Where the fuck did that come from?_ she thought.

She ended up beginning to speak the same time Claire did.

“Alice-”

“Claire-”

Claire smirked, and Alice found herself doing it, too.

“You first,” the blonde surrendered.

“Oh – um, I was just going to say... you’ll go faster from a standstill if you rev the engine first.”

Claire was lying; Alice could tell that wasn’t what she wanted to say, but that was okay. She wasn’t going to say what she planned on either. Instead, she steadily pushed down the accelerator, making the engine rumble. The vibrations tickled her eardrums as Claire let her eyes drift closed in her own reaction to the sound.

Claire was so close; if Alice just turned her head a little more left she could kiss her. It was rash and bold, dangerous and daring for her to kiss Claire now. But Alice wasn’t one for slow decisions, she’d never been cowardly, rewards didn’t come to her without risk, and her confidence was always sky-high.

The petal was halfway between relaxed and floored when Alice took possession of the redhead’s lips. Claire responded immediately, keeping them firmly connected as the petal found its way to the floor. Alice’s heart beat against her ribcage; she hadn’t realized that she was hoping so desperately for this kind of reaction. Her chest flooded with warmth as the intensity of the thundering engine – and the kiss – grew. Alice had a feeling that if the Mustang’s door hadn’t been between them, the other woman would be climbing on top of her.

Smelling burnt oil, Alice released the petal. Claire finally pulled back with the near death of the engine. She stood up straight, but her eyes never left Alice’s. The green was flecked with passion and panic.

Alice turned away from the gaze; the severity too much for her.

“Good to know,” she finally responded as she revved the engine once more, and then shifted it into gear. The machine rocketed forward when Alice punched the gas, leaving Claire far behind as it reached 60 mph in less than seven seconds.

Ten minutes later and her knuckles were still white against the steering wheel. _You’d better be safe when I return, Claire. You’d better keep my shadow safe._ Alice didn’t know why she was so worried. The pair had been able to take care of themselves long before she got there, but at least she could finally admit to herself that she did care.

She cared entirely too much, and she knew she’d suffer for it just like she did in the past.

_Rain looked horrible. If it was possible, she looked worse than the mere minute before._

_“I don’t want to be one of those things – walking around without a soul,” Rain said. Each breath seemed to pain her, but she didn’t even flinch when the needle entered her arm._

_“You won’t,” Alice answered, but she’d seen too much since waking in the mansion to believe it foolhardily._

_She set down the jet injector she used to infuse the anti-virus into the black-haired soldier’s blood as Rain spoke again._

_“When the time comes, you’ll take care of it?”_

I’ll take care of it? Rain, I don’t think I can, _Alice thought. The soldier was much more desperate than she’d been before. She needed reassurance, and only Alice could give it to her, but the blonde also needed to believe in what she was going to say herself._

_“Hey,” She caressed the woman’s chin. “No one else is going to die. Okay?”_

_Alice pleaded with herself to not be responsible for any more deaths. Especially, the friend she’d found in Rain. The soldier had a hard exterior. She exuded confidence, and often times, it trickled into arrogance. But underneath, Alice knew that Rain was much more._

_“Here.”_

_Rain handed Alice her military-issue watch. The countdown had reached **0 08 01.** As Alice watched the time tick away, Rain’s head slouched._

_“Rain?” Alice called, but there was no response. She tried again, softer this time, “Rain....”_

No – no. Come on, Rain, _she pleaded and her lower lip quivered._

_She attempted to rouse the soldier once more. “Rain?”_

_Alice was greeted with only silence. She moved in closer to the woman, badly seeking any proof that she was still alive. There was nothing; nothing to give her any hint of life._ No, _Alice thought as her eyes began to brim with tears. The anti-virus had been administered too late. Rain would turn, and only Alice could keep her from losing her soul._

_Slowly, she reached across to grab the pistol resting on the metal box that contained the virus and its cure. She aimed it at the soldier’s head, preparing to shoot her before Rain had a chance to join the ranks of the undead._

_Alice cocked the hammer back, but the second she placed her finger on the trigger to pull it, Rain’s hand jerked forward to strip the gun from her grip._

_“I’m not dead yet,” Rain said. “I think I’ll have that back.”_

_Rain took the weapon from Alice’s shaking fingers, and the blonde felt utter relief. She smiled as she placed her hand on Rain’s neck._

_“I could kiss you, you bitch.”_

Alice had cared for Rain, but it wasn’t the way she cared for Claire. _Why do I care?_ she thought. It was just supposed to be a game; only a simple seduction, but Alice knew it was already more than that.


	9. Time for Worship

Alice wasted no time finding the part Claire required. She could’ve stayed a few hours and taken a chunk out of the undead population, but she was too antsy. Thank Claire for the muscle car because only its speed soothed Alice. It meant a quick return, and that was paramount.

The hooded blonde pulled up behind the Hummer, put her car in park and shut off the engine. She stepped out and was hit by the stillness of the area. Claire wasn’t resting against the yellow SUV; K-mart wasn’t sitting in the back of it. She’d only been gone a couple of hours, and she’d expected to be greeted on her arrival. Surely, the survivors would’ve heard the Hemi as Alice drove up, even if they were in the house.

Alice paid attention to her blood, but it was quiet. Her veins weren’t tingling, yet her gut was clenched in fear. _They’re probably just in the house, and they didn’t hear me pull up…. Why? Because the TV is up too loud? Don’t be an idiot,_ Alice condemned herself.

She took one step toward the door and heard muffled voices coming from inside. They were too deep to be from Claire or K-mart. Alice’s thoughts immediately turned to the worst as she sprinted inside, pistol drawn. What greeted her eyes transformed her into a beast worse than the demons in the fifth circle of Hell.

Two men held Claire down on the living room floor as a third kneeled over her, using one hand to tear her shirt away and reveal pale skin. The other was clamped over her mouth to keep her silent. K-mart was being held back in the corner by a young man, her torso kept firmly to him by a scrawny arm, gun in hand.

At the sight of her, K-mart cried out and began to flail wildly. “Alice!”

The plea only fueled Alice’s wrath as her crystal blue eyes glossed over with bloodlust. She threw up her obsidian pistol but couldn’t shoot the man who was hovering over Claire without hitting the redhead as well. Instead, she shot the two keeping a tight grip on each of Claire’s arms. They both collapsed to the floor, dead, and Claire was free to punch the brute in the face giving her enough leeway to get out from under him.

Claire rolled away as he pulled a pistol from his waistband, but it was too late. Alice was already tackling him hard to the ground. They both lost their guns, not that it mattered to Alice. Her hands found their way to his neck. The scruffy man, wearing all black, gasped like a fish as his dark eyes bulged.

Alice didn’t want it to be over too fast, so she didn’t tap into her inhuman strength. She was running on pure rage. Her mind began to race with all the thoughts of what Claire had been about to go through. Months of inflicting cruelty and years of watching it be inflected on others came to its boiling point.

She couldn’t hold back now, and she didn’t want to. Alice kept one hand clamped tightly on the man’s neck as she brought her fist backwards to deliver her strongest blow. The blunt force trauma as her fist impacted his skull killed him instantly, but she didn’t quit.

Claire’s voice barley registered in her ears. “Alice, stop. Alice... Alice, come on. That’s enough!”

On the fourth punch, Alice broke the man’s cheekbone. The next caved in his facial structure entirely. Her hand came back a mess of red liquid after she cracked his skull in like a piece of rotten fruit. A section of the ruptured bone had scraped against her skin, and it was already beginning to heal. Suddenly, Alice was off the man like wildfire, screaming as she tried everything to wipe the thick fluid off.

“Fuck! Get it off me! It can’t mix! _Fuck!_ ” She was manic; desperate not to let his blood enter into her cut skin and combine with her own. There was nothing she had to fear physically; it was all in her head. She worked the blood off the cut with her fingers, hard enough that it probably would’ve left bruises on anyone else.

_Can’t be like him. Can’t- can’t- Fuck. What time is it?_

Alice jerked her wrist up. The glass on her watch was spotted with blood. She could only make out a portion, but the numbers began to relax her just the same. **12:2-**

_K-mart!_ Alice was reminded of the teen by her frantic thought. She whipped out her other handgun, but the young man who had been keeping the girl hostage was gone.

She glanced around, but all she saw was Claire holding the bits of her shirt together over her bra and K-mart grasping her arm, quivering as she used the redhead for a shield against Alice.

“Where the fuck is he?” Alice shouted; she had to find him. She had to kill him.

“Alice.” Claire held up the arm that wasn’t being wrangled by the teen. “Calm down.” Claire was trying to be soothing, but it had no effect on Alice; she didn’t care about the words. “He isn’t a threat to us.”

Alice heard a floorboard creak behind her. She twisted on the balls of her feet to see the last male standing in the doorway as he tried to sneak out. Her lips upturned in a vengeful smile as she aimed for him. The boy, for he could hardly be called a man, made a run for it. Alice let him get a few paces in before she pulled the trigger.

Claire yelled, “Alice, don’t!”

The redhead knocked her arm aside, and the gun went out of alignment causing the bullet to hit him in the right thigh.

_Damn it!_

She turned to look at Claire and snarled. “He deserves to die.”

Before Claire could stop her, Alice shrugged the woman off and broke for the boy. He couldn’t be any older than eighteen. His sandy-blonde hair was kin to K-mart’s.

The pathetic whelp tried to crawl away, leaving a blood trail in the browning grass of the front yard. Alice approached him with purpose.

She blonde walked in front of him and satisfyingly kicked him in the face with her steel-toed boot. Blood and teeth flew from his mouth, and he began to beg.

“Please.... Please, don’t kill me.”

Alice could only laugh as she walked and stood toward his middle.

“I’ll grant you one mercy – it’ll be _quick_.”

She didn’t even give him a second to think about it before she dug her knee into his back, reached around his head and snapped his neck.

The nightmare was finally over. With Alice’s rancorous actions, Claire and K-mart were out of danger once again.

Claire strode to Alice as K-mart jogged over to the Hummer. Alice almost expected Claire to swoon in her arms, thank her desperately for making it in time, and beg her to never leave them again. She got something else entirely.

A slap hit her hard across the face; the smack bouncing around Alice’s thoughts. She didn’t even know how to react, but striking back briefly flashed in her mind until Claire began to shout at her.

“Who the fuck are you to decide who lives and dies? He wasn’t keeping K-mart hostage – he was keeping her safe from the others!” Tears began to stream down Claire’s face as the overwhelming events began to catch up to her. “You’re not God, Alice!”

The blonde shook her head in disbelief, an unexpected smile rising from her lips as she began her rant.

“Who says? I have the powers of a god. I make a god’s decisions every day.” Superiority and irritation started to drip from every word. “You think God gives a shit about His creations? I can tell you right now – He doesn’t. How could He? How could He let this happen? God couldn’t.” Alice stood a little straighter. “The only god on this dying planet – is me.”

“You selfish, arrogant, bitch!”

The words tore into Alice’s flesh like none before, stinging much more than the powerful slap. Everything was going to shit around her. Claire should be agreeing with her; the redhead owed her that.

Claire took a step to invade Alice’s space and jabbed the woman with a pointed finger. “I can’t wait to see you fall.” Her tears only made her emerald eyes glisten even more as she stole away.

Yes, Alice had already fallen from grace, but she didn’t think that’s what Claire had in mind. Next to oblivious to Alice, and unintentional by Claire, the blonde _was_ falling.

_I may be divine,_ Alice thought as she looked wistfully at the back of the redhead who was sauntering to the Hummer, _but even God needs angels...._

K-mart was with Claire at the back of the vehicle. The redhead stripped from her shirt and dug through one of the bags for a new one. Her stomach was marked with bruises. Alice finally noticed her split lip and that she was favoring her right arm. Claire had certainly put up a fight, but she’d lost and Alice hadn’t been there.

Alice was becoming enraged again at the pain inflicted on Claire. She’d killed them all too fast; she hadn’t let them suffer enough. In a sick way, Alice took what she thought they deserved on herself. It was the beginning of guilt, and it would consume her.

Claire pulled on a spare top. After, Alice tried to meet her eyes, but Claire refused to look at her. She shifted her gaze to K-mart, but the teen backed away, lightly knocking into the other woman.

Alice shut her eyes tight against the scene. _She’s afraid of me,_ she believed. Once, she would have been happy to elicit that kind of reaction. _It’s obvious I can’t keep them safe. Claire hates me; the girl fears me. I’ve lost the purpose I never should’ve had._

Next time Alice lost herself – it would be in a bottle or more accurately, quite a few bottles... and she would be alone.

Her decision made, she checked the time, but there was still a spot of blood obscuring the numbers. She scrapped it off with the tip of her thumbnail. The dried liquid came off in flecks until she was finally able to read the device. **12:33:52**.

_The satellite,_ Alice remembered with unease before she let that feeling slip away. _Let them find me.... It hardly matters now._

Alice looked down; the corpse of the boy was still at her feet. _The boy who was protecting K-mart, and I killed him for it._

She hadn’t buried another human in years. It was a practice she’d abandoned when she abandoned her soul. The boy’s bravery justified a burial, however, and Alice would do it before she left for good.

The house they’d stayed in the night before had a small shack around back. In it, as she’d seen yesterday, was an old shovel. The warn wood of the tool felt right in her hands. The heaviness of the steel blade went well together with her weighed down conscious. The steady digging as she broke and moved the earth seemed completely natural.

While she worked, Claire retrieved the part from the Mustang and began to install it in the Hummer. Though Alice could’ve had the six-foot hole dug in no time, she wanted to make it last.

Night was failing by the time the boy was in the ground near the front yard and Claire was closing the hood after hours of silent work. She got into the driver’s seat to make sure everything had been put back together correctly.

Alice struck the shovel into the earth and watched Claire start the Hummer without a hitch.

Her chest fluttered weakly as she imagined the redhead and her charge leaving without even saying goodbye, but then the engine was switched off.

Claire got out of the vehicle, and again she walked to Alice.

The powerful wanderer decided to go cold. If she shut down, then Claire couldn’t hurt her again. She settled into her long practiced mannerisms – all by lifting the black hood that had fallen onto her shoulders after she started digging.

The woman caught Alice off guard anyway.

Claire kissed her. At first, Alice didn’t respond to the warm lips on her own.

_I want this too badly,_ she thought and succumbed. Claire began to tremble when Alice kissed her back; she could feel it where their skin touched. She’d expected Claire to pull away and thought that perhaps she should do it instead.

The second she tried it, Claire grabbed Alice’s face with her hands. They slipped inside her hood, Claire’s fingers wrapping around her jaw and sliding behind her ears to hold her there. Alice followed the motion by placing her hands on Claire’s waist to keep them anchored together. They kissed a minute more. Alice could see that it was less about passion and more about comfort.

When it ended, she let Claire’s forehead rest against her own.

The redhead finally spoke, her voice unsure. “Alice?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t ever leave me again.”


	10. Midnight

After the kiss, Claire went to the boy’s grave and kneeled down. Alice watched her as she picked up a handful of the dirt and rubbed it between her fingers. She wondered if the redhead was thanking him, and maybe – apologizing for the last violent minute of his life.

K-mart came out of the Hummer and joined Claire. The teen placed a hand on her shoulder and Claire put her own over it. They both began to cry silently, and it was completely apparent how like family the two were.

It was a somber and loving moment Alice shouldn’t have been witness to, considering she was the cause.

She didn’t know what the plan was anymore. It was already dark and setting out tonight was probably a foolish task bearing in mind the stress of what happened during the day. They couldn’t stay in the house either, at least not until the three bodies were cleared from it.

Had it been up to Alice, she would have said, ‘Fuck it,’ and burnt the building to the ground. But it wasn’t. She couldn’t just think of herself anymore, but she also didn’t know what Claire and K-mart would want.

Claire rose from the upturned earth, gave K-mart a hug that was returned in full, and joined Alice.

The redhead sighed. “We should....”

Alice waited a moment for the rest of her suggestion, but it never came. “We should what, Claire?”

“I don’t know. Should we set out tomorrow?”

“Sure, if that’s what you want.”

“What I want?” Claire asked rhetorically. “I swear, Alice – you’re so bipolar.”

Alice said nothing and Claire sighed again, trying to backtrack. “I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s fine,” Alice interrupted.

Claire looked down for a moment and adjusted her hair before resetting her olive-colored ball cap.

“So, you’re good with staying another night?”

“Yes,” Alice said and tried to make her next intent obvious. “You and K-mart can stay out here, while I dispose-”

“I’ll help. You don’t have to protect-” Claire rethought her words. “I can handle it.”

Alice merely nodded and the two set off for the house.

The carnage that greeted them inside was extensive. The blood had pooled beneath all three corpses, not to mention that one of the bodies had a pulverized face.

Alice took a look at her handy work. The bastard’s face was sunk in, his nose bent and broken. The space above his right eye was mashed to the point that she could see the grey brain matter tinted burgundy by dry blood through the crevice her fist caused, but his eye was nowhere to be found.

She looked at the back of her hand. There was no remaining blood, no cut, no scar, but she couldn’t help the anxiety she felt about the possibility that his DNA was now swimming with hers. Alice startled when she felt Claire’s hand on her shoulder, but the redhead didn’t pull it back or apologize for it.

“You okay?”

She gave a curt nod and moved to grab the man around his shoulders as Claire took a hold of his legs. They moved the bodies one by one to a pile in the back yard. Claire siphoned a little gas from the Mustang and poured it on top of them as Alice pulled out a lighter.

She ignited it with her thumb and a flame erupted from the small spout. The gasoline-soaked men burst into flames when she bent and caught one of the men’s shirts on fire. Luckily, the house was upwind so the atrocious stench of burning flesh and hair didn’t stick around for long. The two only stayed long enough to see that the bodies would be completely consumed.

There was no way they could clean the floor of all the blood, but it was quarantined to the living room so Alice didn’t worry about it. She hadn’t planned on lying on the couch to try to sleep anyway. She’d likely be pacing the hall near the bedroom or maybe stay outside until dawn.

Alice and Claire had kept fairly clean, but both of them felt the need to wash up afterwards. Using their water supply sparingly, they each took a turn with a rag to wipe down their exposed skin.

The blonde changed into the extra set of clothing that was remarkably similar to the outfit she had been wearing minus the hood, but as she folded up her old clothes to wash later, she found the bracelet K-mart had given her. She’d left it untouched in her pack, but now she felt a strange desire to wear it.

The wire band fit on her right wrist perfectly and was loose enough that it didn’t hinder her movement in the slightest. Alice held it up to see it a little better in the dim light. She couldn’t stop a smile from reaching her lips.

Alice heard someone approaching and guessed correctly that it was K-mart. She held her hands behind her back as the teen emerged into her sight.

“He-hey, Alice.”

The teen was a bundle of nerves. Alice wondered if it was because the girl was still afraid of her. She didn’t want to spook the teen any more than she was, so she let her say what she came to without interruption.

“I need y-your he-help. I want y-you to teach me h-how to u-use a gun.”

_Not what I was expecting,_ Alice thought, but she wasn’t surprised by the teen’s request.

She gave her a nod. “We’ll start tomorrow.”

K-mart took a steadying breath and steeled herself. Next thing Alice knew – she was being hugged by the girl, again. This time, however, she returned it. K-mart seemed to melt into the embrace. _I’m getting good at this comforting thing,_ Alice thought.

She went a little further by rubbing the teen’s back lightly and said, “Everything’s okay.”

K-mart sniffled and pulled out of the taller woman’s arms only enough to look up at her.

“It is, n-now that you’re here.”

Alice gave her a warm smile, and the two went to join Claire in the house.

The blonde walked K-mart to the bedroom where Claire waited, sitting on the bed. A lamp immersed the room in light from the nightstand. Claire stood and crossed over to Alice before she could leave while K-mart pulled off her shoes and settled beneath the covers.

“Alice, I think this bed is big enough for the three of us.”

A blue gaze turned to the mattress behind Claire. In all honesty, it could have held the three of them just fine, but Alice couldn’t justify being there. She knew she wouldn’t sleep and being that close to another person for an extended period of time made her apprehensive. Alice had met her limit on physical contact for the day – hell, she’d already reached it for the month.

“No, thanks.”

Claire looked hurt at her response, but Alice couldn’t change her mind. Still, she could probably make some kind of an exception for the redhead. She placed her hand behind Claire’s neck and guided her in for chaste, good night kiss. When she pulled back, Alice saw the gorgeous smile gracing the Claire’s lips and was severely tempted to kiss her again. But she wasn’t sure if now was really the place or time to continue. Especially, considering the teen in bed behind them was only pretending to be asleep.

“Night, Claire,” Alice said.

“Good night.”

Alice looked around Claire to wave at K-mart. The teen blushed at being caught watching, causing Alice to chuckle as she turned to depart.

Outside the room, she was hit by the torrent of what could’ve happened today had she not arrived when she did. She ran her hand through her shaggy, blonde hair, stopping to rub the back of her neck and relieve the worry.

She wondered if it was too soon to begin pacing and decided that it probably was. She needed air anyway, so she left the house and sat in the passenger side of the Mustang. The familiarity of the vehicle was comforting to her. It was almost as if she could go back and pretend that it was still morning.

Alice indulged herself in that fantasy, imaging that she was about to leave for the part. _What could I have done differently?_

She could’ve driven faster; she could’ve let the two survivors join her; she could’ve never left....

Alice broke out her watch. **23:59:59**. One more second, and it would be midnight.

She heard the front door of the house open and glanced in the side mirror to see Claire. The woman was standing on the porch looking around, arms folded over chest to keep out the chill.

It was clear who Claire was looking for, so Alice helped her out with a short whistle. The redhead looked in the direction of the sound and although it was too dark to tell, Alice was sure their eyes met through the mirror. Claire walked to the vehicle and sat in the driver’s side.

At first, the two didn’t speak. They were content enough to just be in each other’s company, but something was on Alice’s mind and she had to know.

“Claire, what happened?”

The redhead sighed. “I was working on the Hummer, and K was sitting next to me. Someone called for help. It was just one of them. I made him keep his distance and left to speak to him. Two guys snuck up from behind and got a hold of K. She couldn’t scream to get my attention. I don’t understand why she won’t talk to me. She talks to you....”

Alice could see that Claire was getting distracted, so she brought her back.

“What happened next?”

“They held K hostage until I surrendered and agreed to do what they said. We were taken into the house, and they changed their fucking sick minds.” Claire was trembling again, this time with anger. “They were going to rape K first but that boy, Michael, stopped them. I think you can pretty much guess what happened after that.”

_Yes, I can,_ Alice agreed. _You thought that with the boy’s help you could fight back and win, but he let you down. He couldn’t shoot his ‘friends’ to save you._

“Alice, I thought our lives were over... but then I heard this engine.” Claire’s face beamed. “When K called out your name it sounded so much sweeter than this beautiful fucking Hemi.” She ran her hands lovingly over the wheel as she’d done before. Then she turned to Alice and looked at her the way she’d done when they kissed before Alice left.

Claire seemed to contemplate something, and Alice knew the what the decision was the instant Claire began to climb over and sit on top of her. Alice let her do it; she let Claire place both of her hands on Alice’s face and kiss her soundly. She let her bring buried passion to the surface.

Needing to do something with her hands, Alice set them on Claire’s thighs and squeezed. Ragged breaths and heavy kissing fogged over the Mustang’s windows. As the aggressor, Claire drove them both into a frenzy. Alice didn’t know how far the other woman would want to go, but she was definitely along for the ride as she lowered her mouth to Claire’s neck.

Roaming hands felt every inch of Alice’s body, over her clothes. It gave Alice the notion to start removing some of them. Starting at the bottom of Claire’s shirt, Alice’s hand slid under the fabric on a fast road trip to free Claire’s breasts – before she was stopped.

“Don’t,” Claire rasped.

If Claire didn’t want to be naked, that was okay with Alice. If Claire wanted to stop, that was okay, too, but that particular detail wasn’t on the map.

Claire kept kissing Alice as she sat up on her knees a little to unbutton her own pants. When Claire grabbed her hand and moved it to her lower abdomen, Alice finally understood. _She wants to be in control, and after what happened today...._ Alice condemned herself. It should’ve been obvious to her from the beginning. Claire needed to know that her body was still her own, and that only she had the power to decide what to do with it.

She let Claire be her guide, listening to every sigh, attentive to the little shudders when her fingers were moved just right. Claire had the leather seat in a tight grip as Alice showed restraint, fighting her urge to take over. The first minute was slow torture.

Alice desperately wanted to be an active participant, but she needed Claire to agree to it first. Her fingers moved on their own accord once to inform Claire of her intentions. The redhead froze and met her questioning gaze.

“Trust me,” Alice whispered

Claire released Alice’s hand. Her green eyes slid closed and her head leaned back as Alice began to move inside the woman on her own. She kept the sensation building as Claire moaned and bucked against her. Their mouths were never separate for long.

When Claire came, she cried out Alice’s name in blissful release and then practically collapsed on top of her. Claire’s arms wrapped around the taller woman’s neck and she let her head fall onto a strong shoulder.

Alice felt wetness soak through her shirt. Claire was crying and in the next moment her chest began to shake with sobs. She hardly knew what to do. She’d never reassured someone from such a thing, and certainly no one had ever cried after she brought them to their climax, but she did complete the embrace Claire started.

After a moment, words were whispered into her neck. “I’m sorry, Alice.”

Alice was still at a loss, so she did the one she knew made Claire happy. She brought an arm between them and gently lifted Claire’s. With the hand cradling the redhead’s chin, Alice brought them together for a kiss.

Hours later, Alice woke shortly before dawn, immediately alarmed that she’d fallen asleep in the first place. A weight was keeping her in place, and she swiftly reclaimed her head to see that Claire was huddled against her in the leather seat of the Mustang, asleep.

Claire began to stir and woke without any panic whatsoever. An unguarded smile found its way to her lips, and Alice joined the merriment with a grin of her own.

The joy didn’t last long.

“Where’s K?” Claire asked suddenly, fear at the forefront of her voice.

“She’s still in the house asleep, I’m sure.”

Claire became at ease with the statement, but she excused herself anyway.

“I need to get back to her.”

Alice nodded, but if she was honest with herself she could admit that she was sad to see Claire go. The redhead opened the passenger side door and rose, but didn’t leave without first kissing Alice firmly.

“See you in the morning,” Claire said as she walked back into the house.

Alice stretched out in the seat, setting her booted feet up on the dashboard and placing her hands around the back of her head. Things were beginning to look up.


	11. Wartime

Alice couldn’t fall back to sleep after Claire left; she didn’t even try. The redhead had gotten her release, but Alice didn’t get hers, and the sexual tension had her wired. The blonde didn’t mind at first, but as the minutes dragged on into daylight she was trying to think of anything that would free the pent-up energy.

Back before the outbreak, she’d just hit the gym. Now, doing pushups and running was a waste of time. Her muscles never deteriorated. Her heart never needed to be strengthened. She was always at optimum power, and now it was a burden. The only thing she could practice was her mental capabilities. Her focus could always use improvement. It had taken Alice months of struggle to influence more than one object, but mere weeks until she could control three or more at a time.

Alice thought of one of the questions K-mart had asked her the other day; the one about enhancing her own strength. She’d tried something like it a few days after meeting Beth – it hadn’t worked. Alice found that out after having the genius, drunken notion to jump off a building and see if she could make herself fly. Alice was completely immune to her own mental control, but she never really understood why. Like she did when she lifted the Hummer, Alice used her physical strength as much as she could, and then only applied her mental influence on the vehicle when it wasn’t enough.

There was one more talent her mental abilities allowed her. As long as she was familiar with how something worked, she could alter it from the inside without having to see it. The barrier to that particular skill had been breached a year ago, and she’d been using it ever since. She could dispatch undead with about as much effort as aiming and pulling a trigger. Simply severing the brain stem or removing a vertebra with the spinal column still attached – while not as satisfying as physically shooting something in the head – could be more effective. Especially, when she could focus on twenty at a time.

_Alice was merely passing through the town with only one goal in mind – to pick up her friend Jack. And if he couldn’t be found, she’d settle for Jim. At this point, she’d even take Patrón._

_The previously raided liquor store didn’t hold much, but she found one bottle of Old No. 7. As she walked back through the broken glass door, she saw the horde approaching. They’d probably followed the sound of her bike. Her blood had given her warning, but she was too concerned with finding good alcohol to care much about it._

_Now, though, she faced the beginnings of an undead army. Their ranks were full of disorder, but they were formidable just the same. By the looks of them, they hadn’t been able to infect any new recruits for a while. The first to reach her were like a cavalry, in that their flesh was still fresh enough that they retained more of their human speed than the others._

_They still had a way to go, however, and if Alice was quick enough, she could swallow some aqua vitae. Alice twisted the top and brought the square bottle to her lips. It was a sweet kind of burn that filled her throat as she downed a good portion. A refreshing sigh escaped after she swallowed the last time. She let the bottle drop to her side as she used her free hand to un-holster a handgun. She barely had to look as she took another drink and began to fire on the charging infected._

_One empty clip and a near-empty bottle later, Alice had to dodge an undead from behind causing her liquor bottle to smash on the concrete wall of the store beside her. She looked at the broken neck of the bottle in her hand._

_“You son of a bitch! I wasn’t done with that!”_

_She jammed the jagged edge of her newly-created, bar-worthy weapon into the undead’s skull and released it when the corpse fell to the ground. Alice let her anger build though she was happily indulging in her intoxicated state. She was certainly a mean drunk, but she hadn’t always been that way._

Attacking from behind – you should get a new trick, ya’ spineless bastard, _Alice cursed and then thought for a moment more._ Now, there’s an idea....

_Next to start their assault was the typical infantry of the undead – the slow, rotted, first-to-be-infected type. The first to approach her would get to be her guinea pig. An undead construction worker, courtesy of the orange vest and leather work gloves, volunteered with a loud moan and a deteriorating gait._ You’ll do, _Alice thought with a smile as she began to focus. A slight pressure filled up the space in her mind that wasn’t clouded with inebriation until the infected froze in its tracks. Alice held it in place. She concentrated for a moment longer. Her pupils expanded and the undead’s entire spine was ripped from its back._

_Alice looked on in wonder as the mass of bone, each vertebra still connected to the last, fell alongside its owner. She couldn’t help the laughter escaping her lips any more than she could help her aggressive desire to do it again._

Refining the ability to cause destruction from the inside into a more efficient means of killing was necessary if Alice really wanted to do damage to the undead population everywhere she went. So, she developed it as quickly as she could but also used it sparingly. If Umbrella ever emerged upon a town she’d passed through and found nothing but once-infected corpses with no real visible signs of damage – well, it would seem quite suspicious. She had no doubt that some good, little, Umbrella dog would begin to spot a pattern and track her.

Still, there was the question of how to release her built-up energy. She decided to work on improving her range. A general rule for the scope of her mental prowess was that the further she was from something, the less influence she could have over it.

In the time just before dawn, Alice left the Mustang and set out to practice. The only objects to use around her were tiny rocks and rooted trees, but those were all too boring and wouldn’t be a good enough workout. _Well, there is…_ Alice looked over at the vehicles. She glanced at the yellow Hummer. _Claire would kill me if anything happened to her Beast…._ She shifted her gaze to the Mustang and shrugged. She was sure nothing would really happen to it.

Alice took a few calming breaths after sitting with her legs crossed on the pavement. Her blue eyes focused on the muscle car as it began to rise into the air. She tried to keep track of every yard it rose, not really paying attention to fact that the sun was rising behind her as she did so. It was a long process to lift such a heavy object, but she was becoming very satisfied with the new heights she reached.

The vehicle was nearly twenty yards in the air when Claire and K-mart walked out of the house and broke her concentration. The Mustang plummeted to the earth, and she was so tired that she couldn’t muster the focus to stop it fast enough. _Oh shit._

The raven black, high performance machine was built for speed – not for surviving an impact by landing on its wheels with said speed. It never stood a chance. Alice merely grimaced as the vehicle came crashing down. The front end collided with the pavement first thanks to its heavy engine, causing the entire body to compress in a devastating display of what happens when sheet metal and gravity combine. All four wheels popped off and one put a dent in the Hummer. Bits of glass and other debris flew as each windshield cracked. None of it went far enough to hit Claire or K-mart, but Alice was struck with some of the shrapnel-like pieces of metal and broken glass.

When the wreckage and dust settled, Alice rose from her sitting position to see Claire running to her.

“Jesus Christ! _Alice!_ ” Claire held up her hands in complete disbelief keeping her attention on the destroyed vehicle. “What the fuck?”

_Not quite the reaction I was expecting,_ Alice thought. _Especially, considering.…_ Alice looked at her left arm. Blood ran underneath her leather jacket to drip to the ground from her unmoving fingers. The flow began to increase as her heart struggled to pump with every ounce lost. _Such a mess – I hate it when I cut arteries._

Claire was still cursing, her profanity becoming ever more colorful as Alice tried to clear her head from exhaustion and blood loss. The shredded metal in her shoulder had to be pulled out if her healing was going to begin. She could only lift her other arm far to brush her fingers against the black piece. The unsuccessful attempt drained her of what strength she had left, but before she could completely collapse, K-mart caught her. The last thing Alice remembered was Claire calling her name.

When she came to, she was naked underneath the sheets of the bed inside the house. Sunlight was pouring in the window, but Alice couldn’t discern the time. She could already feel that she wasn’t wearing her watch and she began to panic until she noticed Claire pacing at the end of the bed.

The redhead was just about to make another pass when, during her turn, she saw that Alice was awake.

“Hey!”

Claire approached and then sat on the mattress next to her.

“Hey yourself,” Alice greeted. Before Claire could speak again she asked, “Where’s my watch?”

The redhead twisted backwards to grab the device off the nightstand and hand it to her. Alice checked the time as Claire questioned her.

“How do you feel?”

**7:23:54**.

“I’m fine,” she replied and sat up to look at the blood-stained bandage wrapped around her shoulder, completely unconcerned that she was topless in front of the other woman. _Unconscious for the second time in one day, but I‘m fine._ She began to remove the dressing.

“Don’t!”

Alice stilled her motions and met the redhead’s eyes.

“Trust me,” she said and smiled as she remembered last night’s similar conversation. Claire seemed to realize it, too, and surrendered.

Alice unwrapped herself and smiled when she saw Claire’s jaw drop at the unmarred skin.

“I’m beginning to think this was all just a clever ploy for me to get you naked and in bed.”

Laughing, Alice was disappointed that she hadn’t devised such a plan.

“Seriously,” Claire said. “What _were_ you doing?”

“Exercising.”

The redhead lifted an eyebrow. “Exercising?”

“Yep.”

“Well,” Claire gave her body a once over before she continued, “I think we need to come up with a little less destructive way for you to expel some energy.”

Alice’s smirk went from one ear to the other. “I couldn’t agree more.”

“No time like the present,” Claire jested, and then pulled Alice in for a kiss.

When they broke apart for air, Alice thought of the teen. “Wait, where’s K-mart?”

“Washing your clothes or something,” Claire mumbled as she began to trail kisses down the side of Alice’s neck.

“Not anymore….”

Claire looked over her shoulder and immediately did a double take. The teen was standing in the doorway with Alice’s black, folded clothes in hand.

Silently, Alice watched as the pair made eye contact and blood ran to both of their faces in a complete blush. Although Claire was blocking K-mart’s view of Alice, she pulled up the sheets and began to chuckle.

The teen took it as a sign that it was okay to drop the clothes off, so she set them on the end of the bed and made a quick exit.

Claire dropped her head in her hands in amused embarrassment. “Oh, God.”

Alice was still snickering when Claire composed herself and finally commented on her perfect skin.

“So, the T-virus heals you?”

“Yes.”

Claire shook her head. “Wish I would’ve known _that_ sooner.”

_She was worried,_ Alice realized. _Really – truly worried.…_

“It’s going to take a lot more than a little piece of metal to take me down for good.”

Claire seemed to be soothed by this because she went back to her playful mood with a smile.

“I still cannot believe you _demolished_ that car.”

“Hey – I got some good use out of it first.”

Now, it was Claire’s turn to laugh. “That you did.”


	12. First Hour's Lesson Plan

Their plans interrupted and Alice’s libido put back under wraps, Alice rose from the bed and started to dress in her newly cleaned clothes. She did take her sweet time to pull on every piece of black fabric with teasing intentions. With her back turned to Claire, Alice smirked when she heard the woman swallow.

The last article of clothing Alice had to put on was her jacket. She was quite pleased to see the tear from the piece of metal sown up correctly. What interested her more, was that the stitches somehow rested directly over her heart, almost as if her heart had finally been replaced. Or had it just been taken.…

She didn’t worry herself over the location of her heart much, and instead, slipped on her holsters; her guns back in place.

Alice heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs. It was obviously K-mart trying the give the two a little better indication that they were about to be intruded upon again.

When the teen appeared in the doorway, it was as if nothing had happened at all. The only person still affected by the embarrassing incident was Claire, who could hardly meet the girl’s eyes.

“Let’s start your lesson,” Alice said to K-mart, but Claire stopped them.

“Lesson?”

Alice nodded. “Yeah, she asked me to teach her how to shoot.”

Claire seemed immediately put off by the idea but didn’t interfere. She turned away from them both to look out the window.

Alice watched her for a moment, and then realized that Claire just wanted to be alone. She escorted the teen out of the one-bedroom house and into the front yard.

“You really should talk to her, you know,” Alice commented when they were outside.

The teen sighed. “I-I ca-can’t. Besides ta-talking about me is not what we came down he-here to do.”

Alice nodded once and pulled out a Supergrade pistol from the holster on her lower back. She released the magazine and unloaded the cartridge in the chamber, then handed the empty weapon to K-mart. The teen looked the gun over. Alice watched with a knowing eye that she was enjoying the feel of power in her hands.

“All right, the first thing I was taught about guns is to never aim one at something you don’t intend to shoot. That is paramount, you understand?”

K-mart nodded and kept the barrel pointed down.

“Here’s your safety,” Alice pointed to a small switch and pushed down on it to reveal the small crimson spot it covered. “That red dot means the gun is ready to fire. If the safety is in place you won’t be able to pull the trigger. This-” Alice remarked upon the button behind the trigger, “is the magazine release. The trigger is pretty self-explanatory, but the hammer – the lever back here,” she directed the girl to it. “It will cock itself every time you pull the trigger. There’s no need for that stupid, dramatic, Hollywood stunt of cocking the hammer every single time you pull the gun out.”

Alice repositioned the teen for a fire-ready stance by having her feet shoulder-width apart with her left foot leading her right, and then had her lean forward slightly with the gun aimed. “That’s your firing stance. It’s important to remain firm or a big gun will knock you on your ass.” Alice circled the girl, and when she was content that K-mart was standing correctly she spoke again. “To aim, align the front sight with the back. At first you’ll only want to do it with one eye.” K-mart nodded, and Alice decided she was ready for the ammunition.

She handed K-mart the loaded magazine after making the teen put the safety back on, and then had her remove and replace each bullet in it. She instructed her to count the rounds in her head so that she always knew how many to go until the gun was empty.

“Load the magazine,” she ordered.

K-mart slipped the device into the well in the handle and slammed it in place with the palm of her hand.

“Good, now all you have to do is pull the slide back and let it go. It’ll load the first bullet into the chamber and cock the hammer. Go on ahead.”

The teen did as she was told as Alice looked around for something to shoot. There was a thick tree about fifteen yards out that would suit their task just fine.

Alice pointed to the tree and was so engrossed with what she was doing that she let the girl’s nickname slip from her lips. “Ready, K? Aim for that tree. Take a breath, turn the safety off, and pull the trigger as you exhale.”

K-mart looked apprehensive now as she reset her position, and aimed for the tree. Alice watched her take a steadying breath and follow her instruction to the letter. The mini explosion jolted the teen’s arms, but she managed to hit the tree dead-center.

“Great shot, girl!” Alice congratulated K-mart with a firm pat on the back that nearly pitched the teen forward. “Empty the clip. Let’s see how well you do.”

K-mart gave her a nod and took her time to aim and fire until there was no ammunition left. The cluster of bullets had the general quality of precision even for a novice at fifteen yards.

“Not bad,” Alice commented. “Not bad at all.”

“Th-thanks, Alice.”

“I think we can call it day on this, but I’ll find you a good gun of your own soon.”

“I already ha-have one.”

“Oh, what is it?”

K-mart handed Alice back her pistol and went to the back of the Hummer. Alice couldn’t help but look at the destroyed Mustang further down the road as the teen dug through the back and pulled out a shotgun.

The 12 gauge was nothing special weapon-wise, but it obviously had sentimental value attached to it considering the way K-mart handled it. Alice wondered if K-mart was remembering yesterday, and thinking about all she could’ve done had she had a weapon of her own and known how to use it. The teen gave the pump-action to Alice as well as a few slugs.

“Watch how I do this,” Alice commanded. She loaded the weapon with ease, held down the button that released the forestock to pump it and did so until every bullet was cycled through and ejected out of the gun to land at her feet.

Alice handed the shotgun to the teen, and then K-mart bent to pick up a single a cartridge. The teen did exactly as Alice had, but didn’t cycle it through. Instead she looked down, her long hair hiding her intent.

Eyes narrowed in suspicion, Alice heard K-mart switch off the safety. _What the hell is she doing?_

K-mart brought the heavy gun up, aiming it at Alice’s torso. Alice snarled. She was trapped between the Hummer and the teen but not close enough to dislodge the gun before K-mart could shoot her.

Alice began to focus, hardly remembering that it was K-mart in front of her. All she knew was that there was a loaded shotgun aimed to blow a chunk clean out of her if she didn’t do something to stop it.

The teen spoke, her stutter gone, and it brought Alice back before her pupils could expand. “You taught me never to aim at something I don’t intend to shoot. Well, now it’s my turn to teach you a lesson.”

_Are you fucking kidding me right now?_ Alice looked into K-mart’s fierce stare and immediately recognized it as Claire’s own look of death. _That’s a little scary._ K-mart wasn’t joking, not in the slightest. And at the teen’s next words – Alice knew why.

“If you hurt Claire; if you’re just playing some stupid game with her affection, I swear I’ll make you regret it.”

Alice had moved on from wanting to defend herself to being flat out impressed that K-mart was threatening her. _Kid’s got fucking courage, I’ll give her that._ Still, no one – and Alice was absolutely adamant about that – no one bullied her without facing the consequences.

She took a step forward, but K-mart remained steady. “You’re brave,” she commended and took another step. “But you’re stupid.”

Alice knocked the barrel aside with her hand and reached around so that it was caught between her right arm and upper torso. K-mart tried to yank it back, but Alice already had a handgun placed to her temple as she gave her final lesson for the day.

“Ever try that shit again and you _really_ better be ready to pull the trigger – before I do.”

“Empty threat, Alice. Y-You’re gun isn’t even lo-loaded.”

“But are you sure?” She smirked like a fiend. “Do you really want to take that chance?”

Alice abruptly released the teen and re-holstered her black, empty handgun as she laughed at her called bluff. For all K-mart knew, she was just laughing manically for the hell of it. She set off for the house, but she had one more thing to say to the teen.

“We’ll go over the rest of the stuff you need to know about that shotgun tomorrow, and I’m still going to find you a pistol.” Alice winked at the girl before she stepped inside.

Claire was still in the bedroom, not really doing anything when Alice arrived.

“How’d it go?” Claire asked, solemn.

“She’s a natural,” Alice replied. It didn’t seem to make Claire feel any better.

“I never wanted this for her.”

“Everyone should have the right to protect themselves, Claire.”

The other woman shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. I never wanted her to _have_ to fight. She’s my child, my kid-sister, my best friend….”

“She’s not so little anymore.” Alice thought back to her and K-mart’s quarrel. “And she wants to help protect you. She needs it, and so do you.”

Alice was right, of course. K-mart needed to be able to defend herself and others, and Claire needed to know that the teen wasn’t the same trembling girl she’d found in a store one day.

With no more delays, the three were back on the road in a matter of minutes. While Alice was happy to leave the place behind, she was also apprehensive as to what awaited them. They still had about half of their journey left before they were settled in Alaska. Who knew what would happen when they got there?

They had just crossed over the middle of the border into British Columbia when Alice pulled over for the evening. It was a beautiful night. The air was fresh, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Alice didn’t look at stars often, but when she got out the vehicle to stretch her legs, she was taken aback by how small the shinning lights made her feel.

K-mart was at her side, pointing to her watch in question. She didn’t know why K-mart was suddenly so interested in the time, but she let her look just the same. The teen twisted Alice’s wrist to get a better look at the numbers. Alice hit the button to illuminate them, and in an instant, the teen’s face lit up. She left without explaining.

Curious as to what was so fascinating, Alice pressed the light on her watch again. **23:59:33**. She had no idea what had K-mart excited so she shrugged.


	13. Space-Time Continuum

At the passenger side of the vehicle, Alice watched K-mart pull on Claire’s arm like they were late for school. Or whatever it was teens worried about in the apocalypse.

“What, K? What?” Claire asked. K-mart stilled, looked directly into Claire’s eyes as she cocked her head and tugged on Claire’s sleeve once. Claire’s shoulders lost their tension as she realized that K-mart just wanted her to follow. “Okay. I’m coming.”

K-mart brought Claire over to Alice, and then demanded she follow her as well with a hand gesture. The teen led them to a small clearing off the side of the road, motioned for them to stay put, and then ran back to vehicle.

“What on Earth is your prodigy doing?” Claire asked Alice, but before the blonde could come up with a witty retort, K-mart was already shuffling back with a large blanket in hand.

“K,” Claire confronted the teen, “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s way too cold to sleep out here – not to mention dangerous.”

K-mart shook her head as she unrolled the wool blanket over the grass. She laid down on it on her back and crossed her arms under her head in a classic stargazing position. Alice followed the teen’s stare and looked up.

For a moment, all she saw were stars – the very celestial objects that mocked her immortal existence because they had about the same sense of time as she did. For both of them, time was endless. Then a light flashed in the corner of her eye. It streaked across the sky, tail growing bright aquamarine before it faded away.

Now, Alice understood. K-mart hadn’t been checking the time – she’d been checking the date. Somehow, the teen knew there would be a meteor shower tonight.

“That was beautiful,” Claire stated. She laid out next to the smiling teen. “Come on, Alice.”

Alice looked to the two survivors as Claire patted the space next to her. She surrendered to the request, and although she wanted to be as close to the redhead as K-mart was, she kept her distance.

The three watched in peace for the next hour as meteors rained throughout the night-sky above them, sometimes at two or three a minute. Alice was just as happy to watch Claire and K-mart enjoy them, and often found herself missing meteors because of it. The last time she looked, the teen was close to falling asleep. So, when she looked again she wasn’t surprised to see her curled against Claire and out like a light.

Alice turned back to the sky as Claire sighed contentedly. She was captivated by the splendor of the evening display. Somehow, she wanted to get that across to the woman beside her.

“Never would’ve seen this before.”

“Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” Claire mused. “Perhaps, if we would’ve been more aware, more self-conscious of the beauty around us – we wouldn’t have tried so hard to destroy it.”

“We?”

“I know Umbrella was responsible for the virus, but _people_ were responsible for Umbrella.”

Alice swallowed, suddenly nervous as the next question stumbled out of her lips before she could stop it. “What if it was just one person? One person who could’ve stopped this before it all happened?”

“I don’t really see how that’s possible. Someone may have released the virus, but first someone had to create it, and before that there had to be a need for it to be created. Umbrella failed to contain the outbreak in Raccoon City, and the world failed to stop it after that.”

“But if it was one person….” Alice continued; she simply had to know. “What would you do to them – if you found them?”

Kill them execution style, torture them for all the pain they caused, make them suffer a thousand deaths – a million perhaps. Those were just a few of the options running through her head and not the detailed ones.

“Nothing.”

Alice exhaled sharply through her nose in displeasure before Claire continued.

“I figure if there was one person responsible, they’d already hurt way more than I’d ever be able to make them. Could you imagine the guilt they would feel?”

Alice shut her eyes against the words – her words. “No. No, I can’t.” She knew Spence had felt no guilt, only greed.

_“Spence?” Alice called, but he didn’t answer her. He seemed to be remembering something just like she had been doing since waking in the shower. His eyes turned cold, and she knew she had reason to be afraid. She glanced at the gun resting on the metal table next to Spence. She lunged for it, but he was closer._

_Spence grabbed the pistol as she fell into the water that had flooded the laboratory. When she rose, she distanced herself from the gunman. He didn’t keep the weapon aimed at her, but kept switching between her and Matt._

_“We can still make it out if here,” Spence promised his accomplice. “Come with me. We can have everything we ever wanted. The money’s just out there waiting. You wouldn’t believe how much.”_

_His plea did nothing for Alice. Yes, she had thought about the money – who wouldn’t? But she had a larger goal in mind, and Spence was dead wrong about it._

_“Was that how you thought all my dreams were gonna come true?”_

_Before Alice could say more, Matt jumped the rail of the staircase he was on to charge Spence. He was nowhere near quick enough. Spence pointed the gun directly at his head causing Matt to halt._

_“Please – I wouldn’t want to shoot ya. Might need the bullets,” Spence explained, but Matt was still in his face. “Back off,” he threatened. Matt finally moved away._

_It was time for Alice to state her position, so she did so. “I won’t take any part in this.”_

_“Okay. But you can’t just wash your hands of everything.” He smiled cruelly as he continued. “If it’s half mine – it’s half yours too,_ baby _.”_

_Alice snarled at the mock term of endearment._

_“Don’t forget that we’re married to the same company. You knew what they did.”_

_“I was trying to stop them.”_

_“Oh?” Spence sounded surprised. “You really think people like him,” he looked at Matt, “will ever change anything? You’re wrong. Nothing ever changes.”_

_Rain broke into the conversation, the woman still leaning against the stair railing. “Where – where is the anti-virus?” Her face was getting paler by the minute._

_Spence smirked at the irony. “It’s on the train where you found me. You couldn’t have been standing more than three feet from it. I so nearly made it out. Didn’t realize that bitch of a computer had defense systems outside the Hive.”_

_Alice watched as one of the scientists rose from the water, her eyes a remarkable shade electric-blue with skin white as the lab coat around her shoulders._ Get ready Spence, you’re about to get what you deserve, _Alice thought._

_“In or out?” Spence questioned. Alice held back her answer, pretending to ignore him._

_“In or out?” he asked again. This time she looked straight into his eyes as the infected woman drew nearer to Spence._

_“I don’t know what we had, but it’s over.”_

_The undead bit into Spence’s neck. Alice rushed him as he shot into the undead’s stomach then turned around to shoot it in the head. Matt joined her attempt to take the gun from Spence, and tried to tackle him. Spence threw him into the water and aimed the gun at Alice before she got close enough to help._

_“Back!” he yelled. “Back the fuck off.”_

_Alice didn’t move, however. She could not be intimidated so easily._

_Spence made his way to the door, the barrel of his gun never leaving the direction of Alice’s chest. Right before he locked them in, he gave her a few parting words._

_“I’m missing you already.”_

No, the guilt would have to be placed on someone else’s shoulders – her shoulders.

As much as she tried to deny it, and for as long as she had succeeded, Alice lived an empty existence. She’d accepted long ago that she was at fault, but once she turned her back on the world she never got further than that. Remorse used to be a constant companion she fought hard to free herself from. Now, that same sorrow and disgrace was close to knocking on her door again. A door Claire was close to opening. Too close.

Alice didn’t want to watch the meteors anymore. She rose from the blanket and left. Claire called out to her, but she ignored it. She was pleased to know that Claire couldn’t follow her without waking K-mart first. That would give her a head start.

 _What am I doing?_ Alice questioned herself as she got to the Hummer. _What will happen if I leave this time?_ She desperately wanted space, and she really wanted to kill something. There was nothing around to maim and distance might come at a price she wasn’t willing to pay.

Alice sighed as the two survivors came into view. Claire walked K-mart to the vehicle and told her to get some sleep before joining the blonde.

Claire didn’t say anything at first. Alice had hoped it would stay that way, but it wasn’t to be.

“I was a little worried that maybe you’d left.”

Alice ignored the comment; it was obvious that she didn’t leave so she felt no desire to respond.

“Alice… what were you before – well, before all this?”

The question had the essence of being vague, but Alice knew exactly what Claire was asking.

“I worked for Umbrella.”

“A lot of people worked for Umbrella, Alice.”

Claire was digging. Was she ready for what she was about to uncover?

“I was Head of Security… in Raccoon City.”

Claire’s eyebrows knit together. “Then you were there when…”

“I wasn’t just _there_.”

“What are you saying?”

Alice had opened her big mouth, and now it was time to finish what she started. “I am directly responsible for the outbreak.”

Claire was completely taken aback by the words. Alice gave her a moment to say something in return. She smiled at the span of silence that filled the moment instead.

“Ready to rethink that answer?” Alice finally asked. “The person responsible for the virus escaping, responsible for the death of billions – the death of all your friends and family – hell,” Alice chuckled, “probably even your own eventual death and K-mart’s is standing right here in front of you. You’re really going to do _nothing_?”

Claire couldn’t even meet her eyes.

“Tell me, Claire, how many people have you lost?”

“My brother…”

“Your brother, huh? Well, how do you think he feels? How do you think he’d feel knowing that you have a chance to set right so many wrongs, but you’re just standing here – doing nothing? _Nothing_ to avenge his meaningless death…” Alice was being utterly ruthless. She wanted the other woman to hurt, she couldn’t help it, and she didn’t want to. “You’re absolutely pathetic, Claire.”

Alice watched Claire’s head rise, preparing herself for the rage she’d been hoping to face. The look on Claire’s face wasn’t anger, though. It wasn’t malicious at all. That caused Alice more pain than she could bear.

“I forgive you, Alice.”

 _What? What did she just say?_ Alice could hardly think straight. She was trembling, and so dizzy that she was sure the slightest wind would knock her over. All because she heard the words she never thought would be spoken to her.

Claire reached out to place her hand on Alice’s cheek but Alice snatched it before it could touch her. Claire tried to pull back, upset that Alice wouldn’t allow that kind of comfort, but Alice wasn’t letting her go. Their joined hands fell to rest between them. Eventually, Alice let Claire reposition hers so that their fingers were entwined.

Heavy, blue eyes refused to lift from watching Claire’s hand hold her own. The hand that should’ve been putting a gun to her forehead, or maybe unsheathing the knife on the Claire’s belt….  Alice would’ve even preferred another slap to the mercy she was given.

“I don’t understand you,” Alice whispered, her voice softer than it had ever been before.

“And I don’t always understand you,” Claire replied honestly. “I don’t see how one person could be at fault for all of this, but if you truly believe that, then it’s real enough to hurt you. You may not admit it, but you’re in horrible pain. If forgiving you releases some of that pain, then I’ll do it every day. Every single day, Alice – until you’re ready to finally forgive yourself.”

This time when Claire reached out with her other hand Alice didn’t stop her. Warm fingers found the tear that was falling down her cheek and gently wiped it away.

Now, it was Claire’s turn to lead Alice to the Hummer and tell her to get some sleep. Alice prayed desperately that she would find oblivion as she rested in the leather seat. The chances of that were about as good as her catching one of the falling stars.

_Forgive me all you want, Claire. I’ll never forgive myself…_


	14. Comedy Hour

Alice was never happier with the consistency of time than she was that morning when the sun heralded the next day. Claire didn’t mention anything about the previous night except to thank K-mart for showing them the meteor shower. The teen seemed ridiculously happy, though she said not a word. K-mart’s above average mood and Claire’s sensitivity to the blonde were nothing but thorns in Alice’s side.

She was totally and every little thing aggravated her beyond belief. When they stopped to eat a quick dinner and find more fuel, Alice’s irritation was escalating to the point where she was ready to act on it.

Claire held out a can of food for Alice as they sat in the Hummer. Alice wouldn’t even look at it. She hadn’t eaten since joining the survivors, and she was stubborn enough not to start now.

“You haven’t eaten in days,” Claire tried to plead.

“I don’t need to.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t care if you don’t believe me,” Alice retorted.

“You may not need to eat or sleep as much as we do, but I know you still need to do it. I can tell you’re fighting exhaustion.”

Claire was on to her; there was a heavy ache to her muscles – almost to her bones. Even the sleep she’d gotten the other night hardly touched it.

“Forget it, I’m fucking _not_ hungry.”

Claire shook her head. Alice could see that Claire was teetering on the edge of losing her patience. She wondered what it would take to push Claire that far.

“Get out,” she demanded. “It’s my turn to drive.”

Claire fumed as she left the driver’s side. Alice took her place at the wheel, vindictive smile growing as she started the engine again. While Claire and K-mart finished eating, Alice drove them the rest of the way to the small town they were headed to.

Alice was so ready to kill something. _Please let there be something undead,_ she begged as they crossed into the heavily forested scrap of land once deemed fit for civilization. It was as if nature was taking the place back. It was as if it hadn’t been hit by the infection so bad. The further north they got, the greener things were becoming, and that was a good sign.

Alice saw another sign, this time for a gas station up ahead. She pulled into the drive and parked next to a pump. Her blood was silent, but Alice pulled out a pistol anyway.

“This place is dead,” Claire said.

Alice raised an eyebrow as she looked at Claire.

The redhead added, “No pun intended.”

“Just fill it up.” Alice got out of the vehicle and began to walk away.

Then, there it was, like the first falling star before a shower – Alice’s blood twitched beneath her skin.

She hollered in joy. “Yes! Finally!”

Claire whipped her head around to stare at her in disbelief as she took the pump from the fuel dispenser.

_Oops, got a little excited there,_ Alice chuckled as she thought. She looked around for the source of her singing blood. At first, all she saw was abandoned buildings in the empty one-road town. But down the street, was the beginning of a horde.

She called out to Claire. “Fill it up quick, and then pick me up.”

“How the hell am I supposed to know where the fuck you are?” Claire yelled back as she quickly removed the gas cap. Their eyes connected. Alice had to admit that she liked the fire she saw there.

“Just follow the corpses!”

She took off at a run, confident that Claire and K-mart would be just fine. After all, the threat was down the road, and Alice would be there to meet it first. She counted six undead. On a single wave of telekinesis, she cut through their spinal cords and they collapsed where they stood.

More emerged to replace those that had fallen. Alice rushed to meet them, but as she passed a building on her left, her blood’s tempo picked up the pace. She dispatched the infected on the road just like she had done to the group before them, but there was still something making her blood twitch. The building that seemed to trigger it was a bank.

Alice felt like a regular desperado when she entered the building; guns drawn, hood up to hide her face from the out of order security cameras. The bank teller’s desk was empty, not that she’d really expected someone to be there, but it would have been funny to see the expression on their face as she strolled in. _Enter a bank, gun in each hand – a few years ago this would’ve caused a stir._

The open vault at the back of the building was shrouded in darkness. The outside sunlight couldn’t enter enough to penetrate it, but Alice was sure she’d see whatever was in it soon enough. She was wrong. As she walked into the vault, she discovered it was empty and the tremors in her blood were beginning to die down. Whatever it was had never been in the bank, but behind it.

Alice ran outside and sprinted to back of the building. At first all she could see were trees. Saplings covered the foreground a few yards from the bank and a completely mature forest was beyond that. When she focused her attention, she could make out a path where someone or something had trampled down the grass and brushed past the trees to flee into the woods.

She only made it past the saplings when Claire and K-mart emerged on her heels. Alice was even impressed to see the teen with her shotgun.

“I know I told you the Beast could off-road it, but this is not quite what I meant,” Claire quipped.

The tree cover was way too thick for the Hummer to maneuver back here. Alice just assumed that Claire would wait for her. _Should’ve know better there,_ she thought.

“What are we doing here?” Claire asked as she looked nervously about.

Alice’s blood was still quiet, but she wasn’t ready to give up. She took another step forward and looked to her right. She saw a tree a few feet away that had been hidden by others before. A chunk had been taken clean out of it, leaving decimated bits of bark and wood chips to rest on the forest floor below. The dehydrated wood was stained with dark blood. She walked up to it, and found a large impression in the soil. Kneeling down, she removed some leaves to get a complete picture. From the tip of the claw marks to the heel, the print was roughly twelve inches of distance.

“What is it?” Claire asked, looking over Alice’s shoulder. “What-the-fuck? Is that from a bear?”

Alice chuckled with dry amusement. “Well, it certainly wasn’t from Goldilocks.”

“Not funny, Alice.”

“No appreciation for my humor.” She paused for emphasis. “I’m not sure I can _bear_ it.”

“Alice!”

“What, you don’t get it?” Alice questioned. She thought the joke had been fairly obvious – then she was hit with the truth. Claire wasn’t scolding her, she was warning her. Alice heard a kind of thunder almost as if something was literally knocking down trees to get to them. She turned on her heel to see a bear charging full force. Just when it crossed the line to her blood’s awareness, her veins caught fire.

The grizzly was colossal, infected, and pissed off.

“Fuck me,” Claire whined.

Alice smirked. “Now’s not really the time for that.” No response came, but she knew she’d hear about it later.

She rushed the creature, shooting into its bulk. The bullets pierced into its mangled flesh. but it didn’t stop its attack in the slightest. As the bear collided with her, Alice couldn’t keep a hold of her pistols. It had her completely pinned to the forest floor; the only thing stopping it from biting her head off was her forearm placed snuggly against its neck. She could feel its hot breath on her face as it grunted above her. The smell alone nearly made her pass out.

Alice thought back to how she’d subdued the wolves. There was no way she was putting her hands into its mouth, especially after that rancid stench. Alice pushed it off her with a wave of psychic energy and crawled to her feet. Standing tall, she turned to see the bear raised to its hind legs.

The muscled body covered in golden-brown fur was nearly ten feet tall. Alice had to crane her neck just to meet its filmed-over eyes. The grizzly brought back a large paw to swing at her, but she rolled under it. The bear followed up with another swipe that Alice couldn’t dodge. Its curved claws dug into her side and cut through the flesh, while the force of the blow sent her into a tree.

Alice got her legs back under her and turned just in time to see the grizzly begin its attack on Claire and K-mart. Everything had happened so quickly that the two survivors hadn’t been given a chance to move. The beast fell on all fours, causing Claire’s shots from her handgun to miss. It barreled into the woman, knocking her to the ground and leaving her as it continued forward; its true goal now within its reach – K-mart.

The teen had her shotgun in the crook of her shoulder and aimed it as the grizzly lifted itself to two feet and let out a massive growl. Alice was certain the roar would’ve made K-mart freeze, but she pulled the trigger. The slug doused the beast’s shoulder with pellet holes. Its throat rumbled again, this time coagulated blood spraying in a pink mist from its drooling lips. Alice jumped on its back and wrapped her right arm around so that the bear’s neck was being squeezed in the bend of her elbow. It couldn’t be choked to its new death, but if Alice could just get her other hand around to grab its muzzle, she could snap its neck.

The grizzly was too feral. Alice had come close to losing her hand or being thrown multiple times.

“K-mart!” she yelled. “Shoot it again!”

The teen shook her head wildly. “I’ll hi-hit you!”

It was the truth; even with the bear between them. The practically point blank distance from where K-mart would be shooting meant there was virtually no way Alice wouldn’t be impacted with some of the shot.

Alice dug her fingers into the creature’s fur, but she was about to lose her grip. “Just do it!”

The girl raised the gun. Alice could almost hear her exhale as she pulled the trigger. The shot ripped through the beast, subduing the bear long enough that Alice finally reached around to break its neck. She grabbed a cold, wet nose as her other hand got a firmer hold behind the bear’s ear. She twisted its head with one vicious motion.

The leaves on the dying trees shook as the grizzly fell to the forest floor. Alice climbed off the furry mass, and K-mart ran to help her. The teen took Alice’s uninjured arm across her shoulder to help her stand. Alice smiled at her.

“I’m proud of you, kid. I guess you could pull the trigger on me after all.”

Her wounds were small in the grand scheme of things, and they would heal quickly anyway. She was only concerned for Claire. She hadn’t seen the redhead since the bear had knocked her aside. The pair took a few steps in the general direction of the last place they’d seen her.

Alice reclaimed her arm from K-mart’s shoulder and nearly fell to her knees when she saw Claire limp on the ground. She managed to stay up long enough to stumble to her. Alice pulled the woman into her arms and felt for a pulse, immediately relieved when she felt the strong current of pumping blood in a vein beneath the skin of Claire’s neck.

“Is sh-she okay?” K-mart stuttered next to her.

Alice checked the woman over for any physical signs of damage and found only a bump on the back of her head. She scoured the ground as well and saw the rock that her head must of hit. Alice could lie and say Claire would be just fine, or she could tell the truth – that head wounds were tricky. Before she could decide, Claire opened her eyes. For the second time in one minute, Alice was flooded with relief.

Claire brought her hand to her temple as she closed her eyes in pain. “Ow. Which one of you hit me with a train?”

Alice laughed and was surprised to hear K-mart laugh as well, almost as surprised as Claire was.

The redhead cocked an eyebrow. “Laughter does not answer my question, and it certainly isn’t making the pain go away.”

“Al-Alice,” K-mart responded. “It was de-definitely Alice.”

Alice knew that Claire was hurting a fair amount. She’d probably be a mass of bruises in little time, but Claire’s smile as K-mart spoke to her told Alice that she wasn’t feeling it.

Alice shook her head. “You rat. See if I ever let you shoot me again.”

Claire was immediately in scold mode as she looked at the teen. “You did what?”

“She ma-made me do it.”

Claire’s look of death was turned on Alice, but all she could do was be happy that Claire was all right.

“I can’t leave you two alone for one second – can I?”

Alice looked at K-mart to find the teen already doing the same. They shared a knowing, deviant smile. _Probably not,_ she thought.

“You think you can stand?” Alice asked. Claire nodded so she helped the woman to her feet K-mart collected Alice’s fallen weapons before the three of them went back to the Hummer.


	15. Recovery Time Objective

When they reached the edge of the town, Alice wasn’t holding Claire up so much as Claire was holding her up. And by the time they got to the vehicle, she was completely relying on someone else to keep her standing.

“Where are you hurt?”

_Everywhere,_ Alice thought. Her black clothes were hiding it well, but there were literally dozens of tiny of bleeding holes in her skin where the buckshot from K-mart’s slug pierced her. They were slowly healing over, and the pain from the pellets that remained embedded inside her flesh was excruciating.

“You’re not going to like what I’m about to ask you to do,” Alice finally answered. Claire’s eyebrows came together in worry as Alice pulled out her knife and handed it to Claire. “K, get the lantern and a wet rag. Meet us in the bank.”

The teen did as she was told while Claire helped Alice inside the dark building.

“What do I have to do?” Claire asked with trepidation as Alice pulled her arms out of her shredded jacket.

“The shot from K’s slug is still in my body. It’s gotta come out.” Alice stripped from her shirt. Though her skin had many small lines of blood, there were no open wounds.

Claire looked at the knife she’d been given in horror finally realizing where she would have to stick it. “Oh – no way, Alice!”

“Trust me. I’m not gonna like it any more than you will.”

Claire sighed as K-mart entered with the light, rag, bottle of water and a blanket. The teen set everything out. Alice made sure to keep her back to her.

“I’ll be i-in the Hu-Hummer,” the girl excused herself.

The majority of the shot was in Alice’s right arm, shoulder, and torso. None of it was lower than her belly button or higher than the base of her neck. Most of it was cluttered beneath her breast in her ribs. Every pellet burned beneath her skin as she set herself down on the blanket. It was the same wool fabric that they used the night before. Alice had asked Claire what she’d do if she found the person responsible for the outbreak, and now Claire was standing over her – knife in hand.

Alice swallowed involuntarily when Claire kneeled next to her.

“So…” Claire drawled, not sure how to begin.

“They’re not too deep. Just follow the blood trails.”

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

Before Claire could get too timid, Alice took a hold of her hand. She guided the knife to her right arm where she felt a hot pain in her elbow and slipped the tip inside. As she dug the small pellet out, it twisted against her bone – shooting agony through all the nearby nerves. The first bloody metal ball rolled off her to land on the blanket. Her skin was already beginning to heal again.

“Much better,” Alice rasped. She let go of Claire’s hand so the woman could continue on her own.

It was a long and painful process as Claire removed each individual pellet from her skin and cleaned up the blood after. But, again, there was a beautiful women staring at her topless form. Alice wasn’t sure what was more arousing – the gentleness with which Claire inflicted pain on her or the simple fact that Claire was inflicting pain on her.

Claire was about to move on to retrieve the final shot when Alice couldn’t help herself anymore. She rose from the blanket and caught Claire’s lips with her own, one hand holding her up as the other tangled itself in red hair. Claire easily succumbed to the kiss and set the knife down so that she could put both of her hands to use as well.

The redhead’s touch set Alice on fire as she teased every inch of her naked flesh. Too bad more of her flesh wasn’t naked, but there was an easy enough remedy for that. Alice began to remove her pants and Claire was more than happy to help her. Of course, it was only fair that Claire be without clothes as well. They cheerfully stripped each other until the only thing between them was pure skin.

It didn’t take the pair long to drive each other absolutely crazy. Alice was going to have Claire first, but Claire wasn’t having it. She kept Alice on her back and pinned her hands above her head with one of her own. Alice tensed to fight the grip, but Claire whispered dangerously in her ear.

“Don’t make me get the knife back out.”

Alice raised a playful eyebrow as she considered it. Her thoughts of resisting were caressed away by exploring fingers. With Claire’s focused attention, her blood was humming a new tune. The only thing Alice was in danger of was calling out Claire’s name when she got her release a few minutes later. She held it in, whining with a lip between her teeth.

Sometime and several positions later, Claire pulled her pants back on. “You know, I’m really beginning to think that every time you get hurt it’s a ploy to get you naked.”

Alice rolled her eyes as she got dressed. “Are you complaining?”

Claire laughed. “No.” Then her words became serious. “I just don’t like to see you hurt.”

“Speaking of – there’s one left.”

Claire’s arms found their way through the armholes of her top as she put it on, but Alice remained shirtless.

“Where?” Claire inquired.

Alice rubbed the soft spot above her collarbone on her right side. Claire picked up the blood-tipped knife from where she left it, and Alice approached her for the last surgery. They ended up with Claire practically backed up against the bank teller’s counter and very little room to maneuver.

Alice turned her head to the left so Claire could get at the pellet. Claire’s breath warmed her neck as her flesh was pricked. Suddenly, Alice turned her head back around to kiss Claire. The knife slipped in Claire’s grip and sliced along Alice’s collarbone to her throat.

Almost as soon as it started, Claire broke the kiss. “Fuck, Alice, don’t move!”

Alice tried to be still again, but she couldn’t contain herself. Before Claire could try again, Alice picked her up by her thighs and set her on the desk. Kissing her hungrily, she unbuttoned Claire’s pants.

“I’m trying to do something here,” Claire said between ragged breaths.

“So do it.”

Alice slightly bent her head again but her hands kept massaging the insides of Claire’s thighs.

To her credit, Claire was determined not to miss again. She set her hand around the front of Alice’s shoulder so that when the blade of the knife entered, it could only go where she allowed it or Claire risked cutting herself as well. The incision was about to be made, but then one of Alice’s fingers slipped inside her underwear and rubbed against her.

Alice smirked as Claire’s green eyes slid closed. “You keep closing your eyes and you’re gonna slice up your hand.”

Claire gasped as Alice moved two fingers inside her. Her motions were slow enough that she could watch Claire find the will to open her eyes and attempt to remove the metal again.

Alice let slip a confession with more honesty and hope than she intended. “I’m in pain, Claire. You’re the only one who can stop it.”

If Claire didn’t have the resolve to cut into Alice before – she did now, even as Alice increased the tempo with which she fucked Claire.

Alice felt the knife pierce her flesh. It grazed against her collarbone as she hit a particularly sensitive spot in Claire. In no time the last piece of buckshot was taken from her skin and Claire was riding out her third orgasm of the night.

Claire kissed the injured shoulder as she began to recover from the pleasure Alice inflicted upon her. Alice couldn’t help but smile at the action as her mind was commandeered by an exceptionally sappy thought. _Kisses make everything better._

Alice pulled back and helped the redhead off the counter. She let Claire compose herself as she picked up her fallen shirt. It was a tattered disaster, but it was the only thing she had available to her at the moment. She put it on, but left her coat off. It was beyond repair now thanks to the bear’s claws and K-mart’s ability to listen to orders. Looking at it gave Alice an idea.

The teen had stood face to face with an undead grizzly. When it counted, she didn’t show an ounce of fear. Alice would have to do something for the girl to show her what that courage meant.

“Claire,” she called. “I’ll be back in a minute.” With that Alice grabbed her knife and left the redhead to stand alone in the bank, completely lost as to what she was doing.

Alice jogged back to the section of woods where they’d faced off against the bear. Her eyes found the furry mass in the dark exactly where it had fallen. What she was about to do was nasty work, but it would be worth it.

She located the bear’s left forepaw and set in on her knee as she grabbed the smallest claw still caked with her dried blood. She cut it out of the thickly padded appendage. The black nail came off in a sticky mess, but she could clean it up easily. She even had some leather string in her pack that would make a perfect cord to hang it on. It would be put together in secret and when it was done, she’d present it to the teen.

With the T-virus’s host dead again, the infection in the claw had been exterminated as well. It was only in the first two hours that the virus still had the power to transmit its disease after the body it occupied was decommissioned. Alice learned that after her second painful session with Dr. Isaacs. He was always so keen to discuss his findings over his scientific torture of her, even in the beginning.

_When Alice looked to the right of her, she knew the sight of Matt’s partially dissected face would haunt her for a long time._

_“The T-virus is manifesting itself as a mutation,” the doctor observed over his precious Nemesis experiment. “We’ll leave this for now. I want to start on her.”_

_The man looked at her. The way he spoke, with his British accent and haughty stare, told Alice all she needed to know. The doctor had pride and joy in his work, but she’d take his accent over Cain’s German one any day. The retired Major wasn’t standing but two feet from her. She wished she could pull herself far enough from her drug induced haze to curse the bastard out. He’d given the order to reopen the Hive, and while she didn’t know if it had been done yet, she desperately wanted to break away from her restraints and choke her once superior to death. Her belts remained in place, though. After all, she was only human._

_“What will you do to her?” Cain asked._

_“Inject her with the virus,” the doctor answered.  It seemed that he disliked Cain as much she did because he kept his response curt and without detail._

The virus? _Alice’s heart rate began to skyrocket in panic._ No, not the virus.

_“Why?” Cain asked._

_“How can I put this in layman’s terms?” The man in the white lab coat filled a jet injector with a single glass cartridge. Alice saw that the swirls of azure tubing inside the container formed a familiar double helix pattern as he continued. “To see what happens.”_

_Alice struggled against her restraints but she was too weak. Cain placed his cold hands on her shoulders to help keep her down as the doctor approached – jet injector in his gloved hand._

_He placed the gun to her forearm and pulled the trigger. The pain of the needles was next to nothing; Alice had expected more. Her overactive heart pumped the newly-infected blood throughout her entire system in under a minute. That was when the true agony began._

_Alice couldn’t contain her scream any more than she could contain her hate for what the man in the lab coat had just done to her. The searing of her flesh overwhelmed her with every heartbeat, and the pain was sent to her extremities in cardiac rhythm. It was like a song Alice never wanted to hear again, but it played on loop – every pulse louder and more severe than the last._

_The doctor’s excited accent found its way into her ears. “This is unexpected.”_

_“What will she become, Dr. Isaacs?”_

_Now, she had a name to put with the pain being inflicted on her, and soon she would have an answer to the question she wondered herself. Cain was at least good for one thing._

_“Something new.”_

On her return, she found new sleeping arrangements had been made inside the Hummer. Instead of Alice and Claire sleeping on their own in the front seats, K-mart was occupying the passenger side, and Claire was in the back on the seat that had been lowered to fit more than one body. Alice had a choice to make. The survivors weren’t making it easy for her.

The thought of sleeping next to Claire, while they’d slept together before on accident, scared Alice more than an infected bear. Mostly because it would be her own conscious decision and it would imply things. Relationship type things. _Are we in a relationship?_ Alice thought as she looked through the shaded passenger-side window at Claire’s sleeping form. _Is this a relationship?_

_No,_ Alice decided. Having relationships meant you got attached, and she was still under the illusion that she could leave anytime. _No, Claire’s just a good fuck._ With that concluding thought, she walked back to the driver’s side and curled up in the leather seat. She couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be curled up next to Claire instead.


	16. Sand in the Hourglass

The word ‘relationship’ was still bouncing around in Alice’s head when the night gave way to morning. Especially when she heard Claire stir around 2 a.m. and sigh with disappointment.

They had a little more than 800 miles until they finally crossed into Alaska. Alice estimated they would be there with two more days of driving and one more stop for fuel. After that, the plan was to head toward Anchorage until they found a place to set up for winter.

Claire was at the wheel when they drove into the Yukon and pulled off the forested road for the evening. Alice was tempted to offer to drive through the night just so she could avoid a situation similar to last night. She decided to bring it up after dinner.

As the survivors ate their meager meal outside of the Hummer, Alice rummaged through her saddle bag to find the leather string. She cut the correct length and tied the newly cleaned bear claw to it in a special knot.

Alice waited until K-mart was alone, Claire having left to clean their utensils, and approached the girl with her hand in a fist around the piece of jewelry just like the teen had done to her.

K-mart raised an uncertain eyebrow but held out her hand.

Alice released the necklace with reassurances. “Don’t worry. You can’t be infected by it.”

The teen held up the claw. Its two inches of length seemed massive in her hand.

“I-It’s beautiful.”

Alice chuckled. “I don’t know if beautiful is the word I would have used.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe badass.”

“I don’t kn-know what to sa-say.”

“Thank you – usually suffices.”

K-mart smiled dimly, and then looked back down at the claw. “M-my dad was al-always big on hunting. Al-always bragged a-about the time he took down a bear.”

The teen’s eyes began to water, and Alice knew she wasn’t ready for the girl’s emotional life story. _Where’s Claire when I need her?_

“Wouldn’t let me ne-near his guns though. Said they were too da-dangerous.”

Either from Claire’s reemergence or the teen’s ability to sense Alice’s unease, K-mart stopped talking and placed the cord around her neck. Alice couldn’t just leave the teen like that though.

“Well, you’ve got your father’s blood in you, kid.”

K-mart wiped the tears from her eyes as Claire approached her and enveloped her in a hug. Alice left to give the two space in hopes that Claire could take over. Maybe K-mart would finally open up to the one who watched out for her since the death of her father, and more than likely, her entire family.

Claire’s words from the other night came back to Alice, specifically those about forgiveness as she heard K-mart’s crying on the wind. A chill sent shivers down her spine, but it wasn’t from the breeze. The clouds were condensing around her in the darkening sky as the trees began to sway. There was a storm coming. She could smell rain on the air. They wouldn’t be driving if it was bad as Alice predicted. That flat out pissed her off.

Sneaking back of the Hummer, she could overhear K-mart and Claire’s conversation. She wished her hearing wasn’t so good as she quietly opened the hatch.

“I miss th-them. I mi-miss them all s-so much.”

“I know you do,” Claire comforted as Alice dug through one of her bags. “But you’re not alone. You’ve got me, and we’ve got Alice.”

_Oh Claire, if only you knew how much that isn’t true,_ Alice thought, and then smirked with masochistic glee when she finally found what she was looking for. Now, she didn’t have to listen the girl’s sorrow, didn’t have to deal with the guilt she was feeling, didn’t have to face the real reason she’d been hunting through her pack. Not with a bottle of Jack in hand and alcohol in her altered blood.

She didn’t even worry about the noise of slamming the back of the Hummer, but it was hidden just the same by a loud crash of thunder overhead. The rain had yet to start, but the atmosphere was in uproar as Alice walked away from the vehicle.

She held the bottle up but didn’t drink from it. Instead, she considered what was actually driving her to do this.

_Claire.…_

Her mind couldn’t form the thought past that single word. She put the glass to her lips, and took a long swallow as lightning flashed behind her closed eyes.

Alice roamed the woods nearby with absolutely no destination in mind and no attention to how far she was going. Or what she was leaving behind. The wind was cut significantly when she got deeper into the forest. Rain began to fall and collect on the leaves above her until the flat blades couldn’t hold the weight any longer. Water pelted down on her in heavy drops.

Her clothes became soaked as she finished the first half of the liquid. Her vision was fogged with inebriation, and her balance was so offset that she tripped over the root of a tree and stumbled to her knees. Alice’s only concern was for the whiskey that was left, and she decided to crawl up to the tree that crippled her so she could lean against its trunk and finish getting blitzed. The alcohol’s effect was exaggerated by her lack of sustenance over the past week. She quickly succumbed to complete intoxication.

Alice couldn’t tell if it was the cold rain or the liquor that made her skin pale and clammy, but had she been in any sense of awareness, she would’ve realized that her slowed breathing pointed to a dangerous level of alcohol poisoning. Anyone else probably would’ve blacked out and died from drowning in their own vomit. To Alice, anyone else would’ve been lucky.

The storm was drawing closer. Every strike of lightning was coupled with a deafening explosion of thunder. She enjoyed the destruction that played out in front of her, but her buzz was beginning to turn from the hazed state of bliss to a dangerous one of anger.

At first, she was enraged to the point that blame was easy to pawn off on someone else. She totally believed that humankind let her down. _I tried to help. I did everything I could._ _I wasn’t the one who failed. They failed me._ Then she started to think of the two survivors she was traveling with. Every moment that led up to the one where Claire’s Hummer barreled down the road in that Colorado town was a moment to regret. It brought her happiness, and on a moral whim, she knew that was wrong. Her contentment shouldn’t have been brought on by the death of billions. Each fatality fell on her weighted shoulders. Each death a speck of sand in an hourglass. Individual grains, all alone, didn’t make an hour. But as a whole, her guilt could destroy her.

Still, she wasn’t thinking of the reason she’d escaped into the woods.

_Claire.…_

In rash fury Alice slammed her left fist down because her right one was occupied with holding the liquor bottle. Her wrist broke as her watch smashed against a rock she hadn’t known was there. _Fuck!_ She rapidly looked at the smashed device, and then had to turn away as tears emerged.

The bones in her wrist healed, but Alice’s timepiece would not, and she was in agony. Suddenly the wind changed directions, and another sound besides that of clouds crashing together could be heard.

Alice didn’t worry herself about the fact that it was a human voice – Claire’s voice, and she was calling out her name. A flash of light illuminated the other woman. She was soaking wet and completely distraught a handful of yards away.

When the light died, Alice watched Claire’s silhouette continue to search for her. Occasionally, Claire’s frantic tone was overtaken by the rumbling sky. Another lightning bolt struck, and in the bright light, Alice’s eyes met Claire’s. She couldn’t read the expression on Claire’s face at the sight of her. In another instant, they were thrown into darkness. Next thing she knew, Claire was at her side and the storm kept on.

Alice felt Claire’s hands reach under her arms to lift her to her feet as she pleaded. “Alice! What’s wrong?”

No response followed. Alice was too dizzy to stay up so she fell out of Claire’s hold, the empty bottle hitting the ground next to her. There was a double flash of lightning. The glass reflected the strikes like a mirror. In the light, all Alice could do was stare at the way the rain fell from Claire’s nose.

“You’re drunk!” Claire accused. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“You know what, Claire?” Alice asked, her words slurred though the emotions behind them came through just the same. “Everybody has their poison… and I think I’m yours.” She stood using the tree to keep her up this time as she continued. “I’m so bad for you, yet you can’t help yourself. Am I right, or am I right?”

Claire shook her head as she waited for a bout of thunder to pass. “You’re wrong. You’re not bad for me, Alice, but you’re damn bad for yourself.”

“Say whatever the fuck you want, but it’s always _–_ blue for the virus, green for the anti-virus.”

“You’re not making any sense!” Claire shouted to keep her voice about the oscillating wind.

“What’s not to understand?” It made perfect sense to Alice. She remembered the color of her eyes and looked into Claire’s. _Yes, it’s completely obviou_ s. “Blue for the fucking _virus_! God, Claire!” she cursed in aggravation.

“Why are you doing this?”

Before drinking, Alice would’ve been able to keep her lips sealed, but the alcohol in her system made the truth that she’d been avoiding pour out.

“I can’t die.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Claire questioned.

Tears stung Alice’s eyes again and fell to mix with the rain on her skin. “I’m not getting any older. I heal from every wound. I’m _never_ going to die!” She was close to becoming hysterical in her breakdown, but it was no longer spurned mostly by alcohol. “I don’t want to be forced to remain here after – after you and K….”

Claire took Alice’s hands in her own and squeezed them. Alice couldn’t bring herself to return the gesture. She rose from the support of the tree, but her legs were too weak to hold for long. She collapsed to her knees in the muck, and Claire followed - unwilling to leave Alice in any capacity. It was then, with their hands joined as they kneeled in the mud and rain, that Alice had the realization that had the near effect of total sobriety. It would change her forever.

_I love her._

Alice looked down, her heart pounding in her ears. She knew that the color of Claire’s eyes was the only thing that could soothe her. Slowly, she lifted her head back up and fixed her sight on Claire.

“Green for the anti-virus.” It was obvious that Claire was still confused, so Alice tried again. This time, the declaration could not be misconstrued. “I’ve gone from needing nobody, to needing so much – to needing _you_. I can’t live without you. Probably can’t live without talker-of-the-year, either.” Alice gave a tired, fake laugh. That was the closest she could get to admitting her feelings. She yearned for it to be enough.

Claire’s green eyes – eyes like new leaves and life – never left hers as they both moved in. Their wet lips matched up, neither asking or demanding too much from the other. It was the gentlest kiss Alice ever gave, and she was trembling by the end of it.

The touch was all Alice received in the way of comfort. She knew it was because there were no words that could possibly staunch the reality that one day… Claire and K-mart would die and leave her all alone.

When they stopped, Alice remembered the storm that was going on around them. She knew that she was freezing, and that Claire had to be feeling likewise. If Claire got sick now, it would be on her.

Alice pulled Claire to her feet, keeping one of Claire’s hands in hers as she looked around in anxiety. They were surrounded by trees she didn’t recognize. She quickly realized that she was lost.

“Which way?”

Claire turned left and pointed. “The Hummer is back that way.”

Alice led her in the new direction by their clasped hands until Claire walked fast enough to stay parallel with her. She had no sense of time as they trekked through the woods, but suddenly, there was a sharp crack of lightning.

The bolt of hot electricity hit the tree in front of them and caused the tree to catch fire. It began to split at its lowermost fork, popping and protesting the entire time. Alice paused and watched a thick, burning branch separate from the rest. She immediately wrapped her arms around Claire who had gotten a step ahead of her, and pulled the woman back.

The limb fell to the ground mere inches from where Claire had been a moment before. Alice tried to take a breath to settle her pulsating heart. Smoke filled her nostrils instead as the fire consuming the wet tree burned out. _That was way too fucking close._

Alice took to the front again as they walked around the storm caused wreckage. It was still raining when the yellow vehicle came into view, but the storm had lessened considerably. Alice was struck with the new problem of getting Claire warm. Her quick mind knew exactly what to do.

She walked Claire to the rear of the Hummer and voiced a single syllable.

“Strip.”

Claire was taken aback. “What?”

“You heard me,” Alice said as she began to pull off her own wet clothes. “Strip.”

Claire began to undress, but Alice felt she should explain. “You’ll get warmer faster if we both lay naked under a blanket in the back.”

“No arguments here,” Claire responded. Alice could hear the smile behind her words.

The last thing left to remove on Alice was her busted watch. She pulled out the strap and unhooked it. She held it in her right hand for a moment, and then let it fall to the ground without looking at it. Fear threatened to overwhelm her, but she pushed it down as she collected their clothes. She laid them out on the hood of the Hummer to dry when the rain stopped.

Claire climbed into the back seat. The relative darkness spared everyone the embarrassment of being naked in front of K-mart who was still awake and worried in the passenger seat.

“A-Alice?”

“I’m here,” she responded as she joined Claire. The teen breathed a sigh of relief and finally settled down to sleep.

Claire already had a blanket out, and Alice pulled it back so she could get in behind the shivering woman. Her own skin was like ice, but it was still warmer than Claire’s. She enfolded the woman in her arms beneath the wool fabric as it absorbed some of the rainwater. Alice couldn’t help her smile or the warmth that was beginning to wash through her as Claire cuddled deeper into her embrace.


	17. Minute Hand

Alice was first to drive the Beast that morning after waking Claire up on the insistence that they both get dressed before K-mart woke, and found them, once again, in a compromising position. Claire was more than happy to oblige. Leaving her watch behind in the gravel on the side of the street was difficult for Alice to say the least. Being without it made her antsy.

Several times in just the first few hours of the drive, Alice looked down at her wrist fully expecting to see the time, and was hit with total fear when she didn’t. Telling time by the sun was also becoming increasingly difficult. The sun no longer reached the highest point in the sky. Instead, it seemed to travel mostly parallel to the horizon. Alice’s only saving grace was that Umbrella’s satellite was on the D route, for now, and would go no further north than Nebraska.

With a troubled breath, she guessed that it was around 4 in the afternoon when they pulled into a truck stop to refuel. Claire offered to take over, she’d offered to take the wheel multiple times, but Alice rejected each time. She needed something to keep her hands busy and to occupy her mind. Driving was good enough for that, but it wasn’t perfect.

_Why hasn’t she said anything? Not a damn thing,_ Alice thought. She’d literally, more or less, professed her undying love, and Claire never responded. _All she did was kiss me…Then again, I was blitzed off my ass. Why the fuck did I do that?_

Alice switched her hands around on the wheel, withdrawing her right and putting her left at the 12 o’clock position. She checked the speedometer out of habit, as if there could be a limit to her speed. The only reason to maintain any kind of reasonable velocity now was to avoid colliding with an undead that could be clambering about the pavement, and to get decent gas mileage. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Claire mess with her hat. _Apparently, I’m not the only one trying to keep my hands busy._

Shooting a glance to the rearview mirror, Alice saw K-mart asleep. She’d hoped the girl could provide Claire with some kind of entertainment, but the teen was doing what typical teens did best. _Guess it’s up to me._

“So.…” Alice tried to strike up a conversation but failed miserably.

The awkward silence lasted until Claire acquiesced with an inept attempt of her own, making it that more uncomfortable.

“So.…”

_Real smooth Alice,_ she thought. She cleared her throat to try again.

“How do you feel?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not sick?”

“No.” Claire smiled, obviously remembering what kept her from becoming so. “Alice….” Claire kept her eyes glued to the road. “Why were you drinking?”

Alice knew the conversation would turn to this, but she had hoped it wouldn’t have been so soon.

“I was trying not to think about things. I meant what I said last night.” She prepared herself to say it again, differently. It was less difficult with her attention focused on steering the vehicle. “Drowning the pain of losing you is much easier than living through it.”

“You haven’t lost me yet,” Claire said softly.

_Doesn’t change the fact that I will,_ Alice thought as she took her foot off the gas to coast into the slight bend of the road.

Claire the silence as Alice’s reply, and spoke again. “You can’t just give up. You’ve got so much damn potential.”

Alice turned to look at Claire, allowing herself a few seconds to determine if Claire meant what she said. Claire stared back. Alice had seen the look in her eyes Alice before, but she hadn’t had a word for it. Until now. It was pure hero-worship. Alice threw her sight back to the pavement as the tires of the Beast devoured the road a little faster than usual.

“I’ll never be that person, Claire. You see a hero-” Alice’s eyes flickered to her bare left wrist. “I’m anything but.”

_Alice turned off her radio, and it cut the looping transmission. If she left now, she could be there to help the survivors within the hour. She checked her watch. **18:08:45**. She started her bike, and revved the engine with a twist of her hand. She threw it into gear, gave it gas, and let the motorcycle lurch forward after the smell of burning rubber entered her nose. Alice sped down the road with only one goal in mind. _ Time to save lives.

_Lately, however, the people whose lives she’d been saving were ungrateful. They were devoid of hope, each one more depressed than the last. It was starting to wear on her._

_The radio signal was coming from a commandeered news van parked inside a mall. She didn’t know just how the survivors managed that particular feat, or why, but when she approached the shopping center – the reasons became clear._

_They’d driven straight through a section of doors that they haphazardly tried to repair to keep the infected out. Some of the undead broke off from the extensive horde to give her chase when she drove up. She pulled over, dismounted her bike, and shot them all in the head. The noise and activity drew more to her. Alice was easily able to gun them down until she ran out of ammo. The next weapon in her arsenal was herself._

_She kicked the first to reach her in the jaw, snapping the undead’s neck, and then punched the next one with a fierce uppercut. Alice kicked another in the leg causing it to fold the wrong way. The infected dropped to its massacred knee as she reached around its head to break its neck. She was unstoppable. Fiend after fiend came at her the same way, but she eradicated them all with cold calculation and perfectly executed martial arts._

_Corpses at her feet, Alice walked to the set of barricaded doors. She saw a space large enough for her to crawl through and did so. The news van that the survivors had boasted was parked inside, but she didn’t see anyone – at first. Her blood tingled, and then the vibrations escalated into song as another group of undead spotted her and began their attack._

_Alice couldn’t help but wonder if she was now killing the survivors that she was supposed to be helping. She took the five of them out easily. But her blood was still vibrating with nonchalance – the way it did when she was in presence of someone who was infected by the T-virus, but had yet to turn._

_Walked to the white van, she heard muffled crying from inside. Before she opened the back doors, she took a breath and tempered herself against whatever horror she knew awaited her._

_In the vehicle’s interior was a young girl, hugging a dirtied teddy bear to her chest as she wept._

_Alice called softly to her. “Hey, it’s okay. Come on out.”_

_The girl trembled, but she did as Alice requested. She wasn’t sure how it happened, but suddenly the child was in her arms. Alice looked at her. She couldn’t have been much older than 6. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back into twin pigtails. There was a smudge of dirt placed perfectly on her nose – the kind of mark gentle mothers were constantly scrubbing away. Although she had the freckles and the long eyelashes of youth, there was one thing she was missing – innocence. It hadn’t been there in a long time._

_Alice didn’t know how to ask the girl about the other survivors, so she just came out with it. “Is there anyone else here?”_

_The child simply looked up at her, and Alice saw something she had missed a moment before. The girl’s eyes… they were empty. Completely and utterly blank. Her hand twitched once, but she kept the girl in her arms. She’d been praying desperately that it wasn’t the girl who was infected, but no one else was around, and it was more than likely that she’d just killed the very survivors that had been pleading for rescue._

They should’ve turned that damn transmission off! _Alice was furious. The once-survivors had damned her by not cutting their signal when they knew they were past help. Multiple scenarios played in her mind as to why she was here now. Maybe it was that they’d all died one at a time, and the last adult, having to kill everyone else, merely forgot to flip the switch. Or perhaps the child’s mother, thinking that someone could help the girl who wasn’t infected at the time, left it on. Alice had killed a woman a mere minute ago with strawberry hair much like the child’s, but that could mean anything. Maybe the child had simply been left behind. Maybe she was an offering for the infected. The possibilities were endless._

_The girl laid her head down on her shoulder, and Alice was roused from her thoughts and her anger. She had to be sure it was the child who was infected._

_“Are you hurt?”_

_The girl nodded. “My arm has an owie.”_

_“Let me see.”_

_The youth held out the arm not clutching tightly to the stuffed animal, and Alice slowly pealed back the child’s sleeve. Her forearm was covered in four pink scratches that descended to the girl’s wrist in near straight lines. The surrounding flesh was already becoming pale. Alice shut her eyes against the sight as the girl held her bear closer._

_She knew what she had to do next – horrible as it was. Still, she would have much preferred that her nine-millimeters weren’t empty. Breaking someone’s neck was so intimate; not like pulling a trigger. Alice glanced around in hopes that there was an abandoned gun from one of the ex-survivors. She saw none, and even had she found one, how would the little girl have reacted to a gun placed to her head? Not that she would’ve had long to think about it.… No, better Alice used her hands; better to have one last warm embrace before it all ended._

_Alice was tempted to ask the girl her name, but she knew it was only to postpone the inevitable. Plus, she didn’t want to know her name. Angie’s tormented her more than enough. She sat down on the edge of the open van, the girl still in her hold. Better the girl remained nameless, though she would never be faceless. Alice turned the infected child around in her lap, and placed one hand on her soft chin, the other between the girl’s pigtails, framing her face._

_Tomorrow would constitute the one year and six month anniversary of the outbreak, but she didn’t know that. All Alice knew was that she was never going to respond to a transmission for help again. Heroics caused her to take a little girl’s life. Heroics killed all of her friends when she saved Angie in the helicopter and Umbrella got a hold of her because of it. Heroics caused her to try and expose the corporation in the first place._

_Alice would never be a_ hero _again._

The conversation dropped, Alice continued driving. At the next bend in the pavement, the old U.S. Customs stop came into view. She slowed the Hummer down and drove through one of the broken gates.

As she passed it, Claire sat a little straighter in her seat. It was her voice that broke the quiet.

“Hey, K-mart,” she woke the girl. K-mart picked up her head from its resting place on her hand as she yawned. “Welcome to Alaska.”

K-mart immediately became excited. “We’re he-here! We made it!”

Alice wished she felt as optimistic, but Alaska would bring its own challenges even if the undead did freeze in winter.

Still, she tried to put on a cheerful face for the girl. “So, K, where are we headed?”

Alice watched in the rearview as K-mart pulled out the red journal and found a page.

“I think th-the first place we should try is in Kenai, ca-called Resurrection Bay.”

Claire shook her head. “That’s still creepy.”

“I don’t know.” Alice shrugged. “I kinda like it.”

“It’s morbid as Hell,” Claire argued, but Alice didn’t agree.

“No, it’s not. It’s like a new beginning, and isn’t that what this is?” For being a pessimist, Alice wasn’t doing a very good job.

“So, what-” Claire shot back at her with sarcasm, “you want to call our town Resurrection?”

Alice’s eyes widened. “Whoa, who said anything about starting a town?” She laughed, and then put on her business face. “Yes, welcome to Resurrection. Population: three.”

K-mart spoke next. “I’m with Alice-”

Alice interrupted her. “You don’t want to start a town either?”

Still chuckling, Alice saw K-mart stick her tongue out at her in the rearview mirror. The ease with which the three of them joked helped relieve her of some of the stress she was feeling. The teen mapped out the route for her. She followed it through most of the night, stopping only to let Claire take the wheel a little before dawn.


	18. Father Time

The trio stopped for lunch in the afternoon. When Alice got out of the Hummer, she was hit by an instant chill. She looked up. Although there were few clouds in the sky, a massive cold front was sweeping through the area. She could tell the temperature was approaching freezing. Her tight, long sleeve shirt wasn’t doing much to keep out the icy breeze, but she wasn’t ready to break out her winter coat. Claire and K-mart had other ideas. They dressed for the cold; then set out to have lunch.

Claire grabbed two MREs. She kept one for herself and handed the other to K-mart. Just like every meal before, she tried to offer Alice food, too.

“You hungry?”

Alice watched Claire’s head tilt to the side, the way it did when she was concerned.

Unlike every meal however, she actually decided to accept it. She was tired, too tired. Alice could no longer deny the energy food gave her. If she was honest with herself, in the beginning, eating made her feel human so she avoided it. Then it turned into a form of punishment. Like all self-destructive habits, she couldn’t keep it up. Claire’s worried interest wouldn’t let her.

“Yeah,” Alice responded. Claire handed her the MRE with a smile.

Alice looked down at the brown package to read it, but her eyes suddenly couldn’t focus. Her vision pulsated between being clear and blurry. She shook her head, and rubbed at her eyes.

Claire noticed her strange action, and called out to her. “Alice?”

She didn’t respond she was too busy trying to place the fear in her gut. At first, she thought her fading sight was from exhaustion, but she heard something on the wind. She wasn’t sure if her hearing was off as well until she made out the distinct sound of buffeted air. Alice dropped the MRE and looked at Claire’s fuzzy silhouette.

She had no idea if Claire was looking at her not, but it didn’t matter. Her voice would get the message across just as well as the pained look on her face would. Alice began to walk backwards into the field behind her, but her muscles were already starting to contract against her will.

“Go. Claire! Run!”

Alice’s ears were just fine; Claire’s panicked voice confirmed it.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Claire’s silhouette was gone from Alice’s sight, but not because Claire had left. There was no longer any mistaking it. The noise was a mass of propeller blades slicing the atmosphere to bits. Alice’s failing senses and faulty control could only result from one thing.

Umbrella had found her at last.

“Umbrella,” Alice choked out. It was becoming harder and harder for her to speak. “Go, Claire…. _Please_ …. Leave me.”

Alice’s vision returned in an instant, but she was frozen in place. The Hummer was still parked on the road. Claire and K-mart were still standing next to it. Alice’s sight was fixed on them. _Not again – not like this._ Alice’s thoughts were torture, but they were the only thing she still had power over.

A black tiltrotor aircraft erupted from behind a thick cloud. Alice watched the two survivors startle at its loud appearance. It was flanked on either side by two more Ospreys, but Claire wasn’t leaving. The redhead was running right for her. _No! Damn it, Claire. I told you to leave._

Alice had fought this before. She was determined to fight it again – to break the hold on her before she suffered through the heartbreak that killing Claire and K-mart would cause her. Really, it would be much worse than that. When Alice thought about it there were no words, only immense pain.

The airships passed over Alice’s head, kicking up all kinds of dust and debris. Claire was pulling on her arm, but she didn’t move.

“Alice! Snap out of it!”

_I’m trying, I’m trying._ Alice turned around, and for an instant, she thought she’d done it. She was wrong. Her feet began to move toward the landing Ospreys. Her pace was swift as she walked through the field. Claire was standing in front of her, hands placed firmly on her shoulders and feet planted, but it didn’t stop her in the slightest. _Why won’t you just leave me?_

Claire continued to yell at her. “Fight it, damn it!”

When the aircrafts touched down, the engines were cut, and a torrent of Umbrella soldiers poured from the open hatches. Alice was desperately trying to remember how she freed herself the first time. She remembered shooting everyone, getting in the vehicle, and then – anger. Alice had become enraged. If she could tap into her fury, she was sure she could regain command. She went straight for the big guns. _You will kill Claire unless you fight this! You want her blood on your hands?_

Rage should have been enough, but the thought of killing Claire wasn’t working. The signal from the satellite was much stronger than last time. Alice was tired. Fighting the control signal was taking its toll. Perhaps, had she been eating and sleeping like she was supposed to, she would have the strength. But as it was, Alice was too weak. It was possible that only the real action of murder would free her now. All the thinking did was amount to horrible torment.

Alice wished she could look down to see Claire because in her mind she’d already given up. She wanted a last look into the woman’s eyes, then rethought it. If her full attention was given to Claire it would be because Umbrella commanded her to kill Claire. Instead, Alice focused on the feel of Claire’s hands on her shoulders. They were so warm. Warm and real.

She’d been going about it the wrong way. The thought of Claire’s murder wouldn’t free her, but the thought of never being able to embrace Claire again – while heartbreaking, was slowly raising the heat of her blood to a boil.

The soldiers suddenly pulled Claire off Alice as another group ran past her. Alice assumed it was to collect K-mart. Claire tried to fight back. The woman managed to free her pistol, but it was wrestled it from her grip. She was completely subdued a moment later after a soldier twisted her arm around her back, and with a kick to the back of her legs, brought her to her knees.

Claire begged as the soldier held her wrists together and placed a zip-tie around them both. “Alice – please!”

For the first time in over a year, Alice wanted to apologize. _I’m sorry._

K-mart was silent but struggling when the soldiers walked her past Alice. They commanded her to kneel next to Claire.

Alice halted before them as the last man emerged from the Osprey in front of her. He was older than Alice remembered and without his lab coat, but his British accent could not be mistaken.

“Project Alice, reunited at last.” Dr. Isaacs greeted her with a sadistic grin.

If Alice could, she would’ve snarled. In the doctor’s hands was a touch screen computer panel. It was clearly the device being used to give her commands.

Isaacs turned to give his soldiers orders. Alice couldn’t move her eyes to count, but she knew the number of them approached the high fifties at least.

“Keep your guns on the other two.” Claire and K-mart’s bodies were sprinkled with bright red dots from the laser sights of submachine guns. “Project Alice is not a threat so long as we have something she wants.”

_Not a threat?_ Alice considered. _He’s right. Even if I free myself, I’ll be hesitant to attack if it could mean their deaths._

“Get them out of here,” Isaacs continued. “Now.”

A solider grabbed each of the captives and moved them to an Osprey as a third of the entire squad joined them. The remaining soldiers turned to keep their guns aimed at Alice. She was still working on her rage, but she was afraid she would be too late. The aircraft’s engine started quickly. Alice was struck again by wind and the sound of propeller blades dicing the air.

She heard one final scream from Claire, full of every bit of the anguish she needed to be consumed by wrath.

“ _Alice!_ ”

Her vision was freed first, but she didn’t move her eyes at all. She needed Isaacs to believe he still had dominion over her. The Osprey carrying Claire and K-mart had already taken off. She could do nothing to save them. The only way to bring the aircraft down now was to break a propeller and crash it. But Alice could solve her problem of losing control once and for all. She would need all the focus she could muster to extend her range and disable the satellite.

Alice’s mind stilled. As she sent her conscious upward, her head flooded with pressure. She wasn’t sure how long it had taken, but she could almost feel the cold of space, and then the electrical pulses that ran through the circuitry of the machine orbiting above Earth. She hoped Isaacs could not see her eyes dilating. As the one-time Head of Security, she knew there was a chip that would render the satellite useless if it was broken. All it would take was one little crack, and she would be free. The plastic began to warp with the stress she put on it until it fractured.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Alice was able to take a breath of her own freewill.

Isaacs was focused on his panel. His face went from confident to confused. Alice could hold her smirk back no longer. Before she could think of the consequences, she turned her head to look at the soldiers on Isaacs’s right side. Five of them collapsed to the ground, dead. She’d tried to sever the spinal column of more of them, but her strength was comprised.

Isaacs yelled out, “Stop!”

Alice’s nose bled as she looked at Isaacs. She tried to focus on him, but her mind wouldn’t let her. She was past exhausted.

“Kill us, and you’ll never see the other two again.”

She thought for a moment. The aircraft was long gone, and she had no idea of its destination. Killing everyone here right now might not be a death warrant for Claire and K-mart, but it would certainly make finding them a near impossible task.

Isaacs was right, and he was sure of it. “I always knew your compassion would be your downfall. Even though it seems you decommissioned the satellite, your love for others will keep you in my grasp this time. I promise they won’t be harmed,” Isaacs met her eyes as he threatened her, “so long as you cooperate. If you’re insolent or fail to do anything I ask, I’ll have one of them killed…and not tell you which.”

This was why Alice was so against becoming attached. Forming relationships formed weakness. Her mind couldn’t help but play out the scenario that one of them was dead, and she didn’t know which. K-mart’s death would all but kill Claire, and Claire’s death would all but kill her. Alice dropped her voice an octave to warn the man.

“I swear to you, doctor…. You may have escaped the first massacre, but if you hurt them, you _won’t_ escape the second.”

He was unfazed. “Surrender your weapons.”

A small contingency of soldiers came to take her handguns. Alice just grinned like a cat as she withdrew them. She pulled them out of the holster on her lower back, but kept them in her hands, ready to fire.

“You know as well as I do, that I can’t give you _all_ of them.”

“Yes,” Isaacs answered. “But use any of your special talents, and the consequences will be yours and yours alone.”

He played on her guilt recently aggravated by the reemergence of fault she placed on herself for the outbreak. It worked. Alice bent her head in submission as she flipped the guns over in her hands so that they were hanging by the trigger guard from her fingers. The soldiers relieved her of the weapons.

“Time to go home, Project Alice.”

As much as Alice hated Isaacs and what he’d done to her, the way he addressed her was almost like a warm hug. The title he’d given her reminded Alice that she was not a part of humanity, and that – in a truly sick way – was comforting.

She autonomously moved to the Osprey Isaacs himself was walking into. Alice couldn’t help the sentiment of irony. She was finally feeling human again on the last stretch of her journey with Claire and K-mart, but it was the results of that same task that would probably strip her of it forever. Umbrella would use the two survivors to keep her a slave. The self-imposed slavery was only good so long as she cared about what happened to the pair. If her humanity failed her at any time, it would mean Claire and K-mart’s death, but her freedom and revenge.

Alice sat in one of the metal seats. The soldiers were positioned as far away from her as they could be. They all diverted their gaze except for Isaacs, who was sitting across from her. She could tell that the father of her superior condition was bristling with inquires, but he remained quiet the entire flight.


	19. The Science of Time

Even without her watch, Alice was sure they’d only been in the air for an hour. Her view of the cockpit was blocked, so she had no idea of their location when they touched down. The back hatch lowered, and Alice was hit by the smell of salt. Isaacs nodded to her to be the first off the Osprey. She walked forward with reluctance.

The hanger door was closing, but Alice saw the ocean. It would seem that they were on a huge freighter. The Alaskan coast was nowhere to be found, but even if she saw a coastline there was no guarantee that it would be Alaska’s. For all she knew they could be closer to Canada. She briefly wondered if Claire and K-mart had been taken here as well. The white hanger was lined with three other Ospreys, but none of them could be told apart from the one next to it.

She was escorted through the ship to what she assumed to be Isaacs’s lab. The room was completely white except for the medical and electronic equipment that lined the walls. What struck her most was the single operating table in the center of the space. Alice couldn’t help the anxiety that caused her heart to race. _What will he do to me this time?_

As if on cue, Isaacs came up from behind her and pulled his lab coat from a hanger on the other side of the room. He put it on, and Alice felt a chill run down her spine. She hadn’t suffered fear for herself in a long time. But Isaacs inflicted pain on her like no other and always did so with a smile.

Isaacs put on a pair of sterile gloves with excitement. When he turned to face her, Alice’s breathing caught for a second. The doctor noticed.

“You may think me evil, but everything I do – I do for the pursuit of science. To better myself and mankind.”

Alice despised the weakness she was feeling and reverted back to her old nature. Anger dripped from her every word, but she had to remain in control. For Claire and K-mart.

“Oh, yeah. You helped mankind _real_ well.”

“I helped you,” he countered as he began to look her over. “Think of all that you can do now. It’s not my fault that you fail to see your potential.”

Alice hated hearing Claire’s words fall from this man’s mouth. He circled her like a starving predator.

“Now that you’re finally back, I have the last piece I need to complete my work. Though I must admit, you seem changed. Your powers have grown?”

“Yes.”

He shook his head and stopped his pacing. “That’s not it. There’s something else going on with you. You seem.…” Isaacs’s light-colored eyes bored into hers as if he was willing her soul to finish his statement for him. “I suppose it’s of no consequence. You’re here. Would you like to know what I’m going to do with you?”

Isaacs walked to a computer panel extending from one of the walls, and began to hit buttons on the key pad below it.

“No,” she answered, “but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me anyway.” Alice watched as computer generated images of her body appeared on the screen. Next to them, text began to scroll endlessly downwards.

Isaacs chuckled once. “You would be correct.” He did a final key stroke and turned back to face her. “I am going to use you to find a cure.”

Alice couldn’t believe her ears. The words made her mute.

“Your skepticism is not surprising, and certainly not unwarranted. After all, Umbrella’s greedy superiors took a medicinal breakthrough and turned it into something with vastly effective military applications. Believe me when I say, most of us were just following orders.”

“That’s not good enough, Isaacs!” she barked at him. She so wanted to last out physically but held back. “Everyone has a choice. Placing the blame on the guy in charge doesn’t exonerate you from your evil.”

The doctor picked up a medical scalpel on the table next to him. He stared at the blade as he twisted it. When it caught in the harsh fluorescent light he looked back at Alice. Playing with the tool was meant to scare her, and on some level it worked. His superior height allowed him to look down on her.

“And just what exonerates you, Project Alice? At least I am here, trying to set things right. If I can derive an inoculation that would prevent people from becoming infected, or even some kind of cure from your blood, mankind can begin to heal from the damage done to our species. What can you claim?” He rolled the scalpel in his fingers. “Did you help or _hurt_ those you came across on your travels?”

_This can’t be,_ Alice thought. _Tell me I’m not being lectured on heroics by the man who turned me into- into this._

Alice’s mind was drawn to Claire and then K-mart. If her blood could provide them with immunity, then she would submit to Isaacs. _Blood, why is it always about blood?_ She was still angry, but she knew she had to swallow it down.

“Do what you need to, doctor. I won’t put up a fight.”

A sparkle seemed to light his eyes as one side of his mouth upturned in a half smile. “It’s going to hurt.”

Alice’s nostrils flared. “I expect nothing less.”

“Strip.”

Alice followed the command until she was completely naked.

“Magnificent,” he said, but she had no fear of lust from him. Isaacs only wanted her like a young genius wanted to win at the science fair. She was his project. She was his guarantee for the blue ribbon prize.

He nodded at her, then looked at the table, and Alice lay down on top of it. The slab was like ice on her bare skin. She was too focused on the light emanating from the bulb above her to give attention to what Isaacs was doing as he moved about the lab. She had to temper herself for the pain as she’d done so many times before. Though Umbrella only had her for weeks, now they would have her until they decided to let her go. Or until she snapped.

Isaacs appeared over her still form with a syringe in hand. Without hesitation, he slipped the needle into the sensitive skin of her inner elbow. As he drew the plunger back, the plastic barrel filled with dark blood.

“You always had such perfect veins,” he complimented.

Isaacs pulled the needle out and walked away with the vile. “I’m afraid that’s all the pain for now. If I’m right, and I usually am – you will find tomorrow’s attempt much more to your liking.”

Alice began to rise from the table, but Isaacs stopped her.

“Not so fast. We have tests to run, yet. I want to learn everything.”

She folded her arms over her chest, not to hide, but to show a sign of aggression.

“Down,” he ordered, and Alice lay back out. He brought over a handheld electronic device, and proceeded to scan her body with it. She had no idea what it was for, but the doctor seemed to like the readings he got.

“Sit up.”

Alice did as he commanded. Her legs hung off the table, but she was too high up to reach the floor.

“I want you to demonstrate how you disabled the satellite-”

“On you?” Alice interrupted with sadistic glee. Isaacs was not amused.

“Do not forget, I have something of yours.”

She had forgotten, and she was taken aback when it was pointed out to her.

Isaacs interrogated her. “How did you kill my men?”

“I cut their spinal columns.” Her answer was perfectly cool, but the doctor’s reaction was one of unguarded interest.

“Fascinating. How does that work?”

“If I understand how something functions, I don’t need to see it to alter it.”

The doctor nodded in thought, and then walked over to his desk. He pulled out a drawer as he continued to speak.

“So, a gun-” Isaacs withdrew a pistol and showed it to her. “Say, this one? You could render it inoperative from the inside?”

She nodded.

He pointed the silver barrel straight for her chest and turned off the safety with his thumb. “Show me.”

Alice hadn’t recovered enough from her excursion in the Alaskan field. It was likely that if she tried now, she would fail. Any other time it would’ve been as easy as flipping a switch, but this time, her focus would be severely difficult to maintain.

The thought of refusing entered her mind before it was quickly rebuffed by the remembrance of the consequences if she did so. Claire and K-mart’s lives depended on how well she could follow this torturous man’s instructions.

Her head filled with pressure to the point where her vision blurred, but she didn’t need her sight to do what was asked of her. She concentrated on the gun. All she had to do was break the trigger pin and the gun wouldn’t be able to fire. She was sure Isaacs was studying her intensely as the pupils of her blue eyes expanded.

The force caused her to begin panting. If she was pushed much further she would suffer another nosebleed and probably faint. Isaacs looked at the gun in curiosity, then aimed it at her again and pulled the trigger. He laughed when the gun did nothing.

“Impressive. How about stopping a bullet?”

Alice swayed on the table, but the doctor didn’t seem to notice. He was entirely too quick to believe that his Project could not fall short. Isaacs walked out of the lab for a moment after placing the gun down. When he returned, an Umbrella soldier followed him in. The man’s hungry eyes consumed the Alice’s naked flesh, but it hardly registered to her.

Isaacs gave the order. “Shoot her, one round.”

The man in the black combat suit raised the assault rifle to his shoulder. “Yes, sir.”

Alice only had an instant to try and muster the willpower as he aimed for her. He pulled the trigger. A fierce pressure instantly filled her mind and overwhelmed her. The bullet found its mark and went straight through her chest. She hadn’t even slowed it down. Blood poured from the wound, and she fell off the table.

Isaacs sneered with disappointment. “What a mess. It would seem that I pushed her a bit too far. Take her to her cell.”

Alice was losing consciousness from the shot and the exertion to stop it, but as the solider lifted her in his arms she heard a final comment from Isaacs.

“I guess there was more pain for you today after all.” He laughed.

Then everything went black.


	20. Volume of Blood per Minute

The harsh white of Alice’s cell blinded her when she first opened her eyes. It took several long seconds for her vision to clear enough to see where she was. Her room was ten feet by ten feet and had very little in the way of accommodations. There was a bed, a camera, a toilet, a sink, and a light.

Instinct made her check the time. A self-destructive habit made her unsuccessful. Her wrist was still bare, but the rest of her was not. As she sat up on the small mattress, she saw that she was wearing all white clothes. Her long sleeve shirt and pants were made of simple cotton, but there were six metal rings sown in on the chest where the fabric was missing. She had no idea what they were for. The next thing Alice noticed was that she was barefoot and clean. There was no blood on her anywhere. She was unconcerned that it was probably the lustful soldier that washed her.

Alice looked at the door. It had a tiny slit at the bottom and no handle on the inside. Not that she was worried she couldn’t get free if she wanted too. She had to drown that desire and wait until Isaacs collected her before she could leave this room. Waiting was not something she was good at. Especially when she didn’t know the time. She could’ve have spent hours, maybe even days, unconscious. She simply didn’t know.

A moment later, she was up and pacing like the caged tiger she was. She felt that her strength had returned, though she still required food. Alice could only manage four steps before she had to pivot and walk the length of the space again.

She’d easily go mad in here.

Time passed, Alice wished she could have said how much. Her thoughts stayed on Claire and K-mart for most of it. She was already trying to work out what it would take to find and free them. Until she knew more, she would have to be patient. Plus, there was the cure she had to take into account.

_Is the cure worth it?_ Alice wondered as she turned again. Would her effort be better spent rescuing the two survivors or making a cure?

Alice saw the cure for what it really was – a lie. Even if the undead could return to the side of humanity, their deteriorating bodies would not allow them to live. The ‘cure’ would terminate them, but Isaacs had something else up his sleeve. He knew something that she didn’t. Using the serum to create immunity was a worthy goal though. It could never undo the damage she had done, but it could stop the destruction from consuming the world.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps outside. No one had passed her cell before, she was sure of it. She quit pacing and stood facing the door. Alice was so ready to be out of this room, no matter what awaited her when she left it.

The white door opened. Alice was thankful not to see a white hall awaiting her. Instead, it was a pearlescent grey. Standing in the doorway was Dr. Isaacs, his lab coat already on.

“Good morning, Project Alice,” he greeted with cheer.

_Morning? That means next to nothing to me,_ Alice thought. _How many mornings have I already missed?_

She felt it polite to respond, so she didn’t. Isaacs merely smirked at her silence.

“I have great news. Your blood was a success.”

Again, Dr. Isaacs rendered her speechless. She hadn’t dreamed it would be so soon, or truthfully, that it would work at all.

He continued to ramble off his findings as he motioned for her to join him in the hall. “I have yet to run full tests on the serum as a vaccine and a cure, but the lab results are promising.” They walked along the corridor. Alice was listening, but she was also mapping everything she could. The hallway her cell was in was marked **4D** , and devoid of nothing but other doors. She needed a better feel for this place, and she needed information.

“Isaacs?”

“Yes, Project Alice?” Again the term was one of endearment, and again it reminded her of the perfection that separated her from everyone else.

“My friends.…” Alice couldn’t finish the question. She wasn’t sure if she was allowed to ask about them, but the man placated her just the same.

“Safe. And as long as you follow my orders, they will remain that way.”

Isaacs had always been a man of his word with her, but she didn’t find comfort in that. She wouldn’t be happy until she could see them both with her own eyes.

The pair turned a corner, and Alice saw two Umbrella soldiers guarding a door. She was so desperate to know why they were placed there. It was entirely possible that Claire and K-mart were both behind that solid door. Alice’s nostrils flared and her eyebrows drew together. She could kill all three men in an instant, open the door in another, and have her answer in a third. If she was wrong, she’d have to tear this ship apart. Alice was okay with that. What she wasn’t okay with was the possibility that Claire and K-mart weren’t even onboard, and that if she went manic now there would be no inoculation.

She tried to make it seem that she didn’t notice the soldiers as she walked behind Isaacs. _Only two guards?_ Alice wondered. Surely, Claire and K-mart warranted more security, because surely the doctor had to know it would take much, much more to stop her. Maybe they weren’t right there, but something was.

Alice was going out on a limb, but she had to try. “Can I see them?” If Isaacs was smart he would say no, and Isaacs just so happened to be a genius.

The doctor didn’t stop his forward motion in the slightest, but he did seem to look off in contemplation. They reached his lab, and Alice still had not gotten an answer. She was ready to take his silence as a refusal, but Isaacs motioned her to take her place on the operating table when he responded.

“If you are good today, I’ll think about it.”

It was a million times more hope than Alice had since Umbrella found her, and she clung to it. It didn’t exactly mean that Claire and K-mart were on the ship, but it was a possibility. She began to strip and then jumped up on the table, her bare legs again hanging off the edge again. Isaacs pulled on his surgical gloves, but Alice was sure she could handle the pain today – now that she knew what might await her at the end of it.

He began to prep for drawing more of her blood. This time using a tourniquet to make the veins in Alice’s arm more pronounced. The doctor set up a needle in each arm, and her blood began to pour into the plastic bags hooked up to the tubes around the needles.

Isaacs started to explain, his accent pronounced like he’d never even spent a day outside of his home country. “The main ingredient for the serum is your blood. I can’t fabricate any good amount of it unless I get all the blood I can from you. A normal human can survive losing about forty to fifty percent, but something tells me you would live no matter how much I pulled from you.”

It wasn’t very long in, and Alice was already feeling feint. Isaacs withdrew the needles, and her skin healed the puncture holes in a matter of seconds. The doctor handed her a bottle of water.

“Drink, we need to replenish your blood as fast as possible. I want to take all that I can from you today.”

Alice brought the container to her lips, and swallowed the liquid down. It was her first fluid intake since her drunken stint in the woods. She was still quite dizzy, and the fog was making her bold.

“Tell me something, doctor. You keep mentioning a cure, but you and I both know that would never work.”

Isaacs seemed interested as Alice continued to drain the bottle.

“You are correct, but it is possible to give those creatures back some manner of intelligence and memory to curb their hunger.”

Alice cocked her head to the side. “There’s more you’re not telling me.”

“It is Umbrella’s intent to use them for a docile workforce.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Slaves? Ha. No respect for the undead,” Alice said deeply amused.

“Indeed.” Isaacs chuckled and collected the bags of her blood. He walked them out, and was back a little later.

The rehydration was finally having an effect. Alice’s head was clear though she could tell her blood was not fully replenished. Still, she was ready to start again, and she knew Isaacs would be happy to hear it.

“I can go again.”

“As I anticipated.”

He prepped her veins again, and just like before, set up two extraction points. They went on this way for ages it seemed. Alice was getting weaker and recovery took longer each time. She was driven to the point of shaking and nausea. The pain, while dull in most places, was slowly taking over as her brain suffocated from the lack of oxygen that blood provided.

“Last time, my dear.”

Alice could hardly register who was speaking to her, but he sounded fatherly. While his words were not comforting, the sound of his voice was. The final pints of blood were drawn from her veins, and the man spoke to her again.

“You were very good today, but I cannot reward you.”

Alice knew that was bad news, but she couldn’t recall why. A man in a combat suit had to carry her back to her cell. She hated seeing the white, but thankfully, the pain and exhaustion stripped consciousness from her in the first few seconds after being placed on her cot.

She woke again to the same brightness. It was as if the light in her room never went off. Alice would’ve given anything for a window, but the pessimist in her assumed that if she had one, it would only give her view of the murky abyss.

Eventually, Isaacs came for her. When the doctor greeted her it was without any indication of how long it had been since they’d last been together. Again, she was struck by the fact that she had no sense of time. He had made sure she’d eaten before they began their session, but the food mostly made her queasy.

Alice began to measure the time she was awake by the amount of pain she was in. The more pain – the closer she was to the end of her ‘day.’ Isaacs was always chipper, but Alice grew silent as their appointments carried on. Before every bloodletting, Isaacs would walk her past the guarded cell, and her heart raced. But by the time she was carried back, she was too out of it to even remember that there was something behind that door.

Claire and K-mart seemed more like figments of her imagination than actual people, but when she roused herself from the blood loss induced comas, she thought of them right until Isaacs opened her door. He started coming for her sooner and sooner, and it left her little time to remember the sound of K-mart’s voice or the color of Claire’s eyes. With every ounce of her altered blood lost, she was losing herself.

Alice’s hair had grown almost a half inch, but the more radical change was that it was beginning to revert to her natural brown. Being out of the sun coupled with the constant stress her body was under was making her skin pale. She hardly remembered what she was doing anymore.

Isaacs talked often as he exsanguinated her. His rants always did have a funny way of making it into her brain and sticking. She learned the name of the ship they were on – _Arcadia._ Its purpose was not protected by the doctor. The ship was for research, and there was next to no place safer for that than in the middle of the ocean.

He spoke about Umbrella’s shortcomings, too. Specifically, those that had to do with the head of Umbrella – Wesker. He was a man wholly driven to pound humanity into the ground with his haughty demeanor and big plans.

One session, Isaacs discussed his need for test subjects for the inoculation. But Wesker was denying him use of the Umbrella employees on the ship and refusing the doctor’s requests to capture more survivors. This seemed to piss the doctor off immensely.

Though he hurt her, his was the only human interaction Alice received. She’d come to rely on him like a father. The voice and pair of eyes she used to think of as often as she could didn’t have names to go with them. They were no longer real. Isaacs was all that mattered to her now.

She was his slave, completely. Dr. Isaacs’s first mistake – through all the time they’d been together – was letting that get to his head.


	21. Free Time

Sometimes, the only thing getting her through the day, was thinking of the reason she was here. She had to do something. People were depending on her. Next time they came for her – she would make her move.

It was clear, after all this time, that Alice wasn’t coming to save them. It was up to Claire.

The lights in their room flicked on, but the redhead was already awake. She looked at the bunk across from her to see K-mart not yet roused by the change of light. They had a window to the outside, but it was hard to see outside most of the time because of heavy fog. Still, Claire was confident it was morning and that, in approximately ten minutes, a soldier would deliver breakfast to them through the slit in the door. A little past that they would get what the soldiers called ‘recreation time.’ It was an hour where they were free of their cell and allowed to walk, under guard, around the deck of the ship.

Claire was wrong. Instead of food coming in through the door – it opened to reveal the man that had somehow been controlling Alice. She had no idea how that was accomplished, but she knew it was the only reason he was still alive. Alice had a deadly temper – it was one of the things Claire liked about her, but she was so much more than her rage. Alice was conceited, selfish, and unusually cruel. Yet, she was more than that still. She could be gentle, thoughtful, and loving. Claire wasn’t an idiot. She knew that the changes in Alice were being brought about by the time they spent together. Being apart for twenty-seven days would certainly have its effect on the other woman.

The man in the lab coat had never visited them before. She wasn’t sure what to think. He introduced himself, and Claire found his accent irritated the hell out of her.

“Good morning, ladies.”

Claire looked to K-mart. The teen was now awake and moving to sit on her bed like the redhead. She turned back to the man as he continued.

“My name is Dr. Isaacs.”

Now, she had a name to put with his face, but what she really wanted was a gun to put to it instead.

“I’d say it’s a pleasure, but it’s not,” Claire commented, her words drenched with sarcasm.

The doctor was unfazed, and that pissed her off even more.

“Congratulations. You two get to be the first to try out the new serum I’ve derived from Project Alice’s blood.”

_Project Alice.…_ Claire remembered the man referring to Alice that way, but she hated the sound of it. It made Alice seem inhuman, and that was so far from the truth.

The man stepped out of the doorway to allow four soldiers into the room. Claire stood quickly, ready to fight. Before she could take swing at one of them, they grabbed the fist she was pulling back and twisted her around so that she was in a painful arm lock. Zip tie cuffs found their way around her wrists in no time. Claire was sick of never being able to get the upper hand here. The soldiers had come to expect this kind of reaction from her. She needed to be unpredictable.

Truly, she was surprised that they didn’t knock her senseless whenever she attacked them. They must have had some order in place not to harm her or K. The teen didn’t try to fight as often as she did, but K-mart managed to get a punch in every once in a while.

Still, their orders didn’t stop the Umbrella soldiers from being a little rougher than necessary. That was how they were now as they pushed Claire into the hallway and guided her to follow Dr. Isaacs. K-mart and her captors remained behind them.

When they got to the stairwell, Claire was so used to going up that she was surprised to see the doctor go down. They descended into the very bowels of the ship, and finally, into a stark white lab. Claire was unaccustomed to so much brightness. Their own cell was a dull shade of grey, yet somehow, the contrast between the two was like day and night.

Both her wrists were still behind her back when Dr. Isaacs gave the command to release her. The soldier cut the ties, and Claire brought her arms around to rub where the plastic had dug into her skin.

The next order the doctor gave was for Claire. “On the table. Roll up your sleeve.”

She didn’t want to follow the instruction, but she didn’t have much of a choice. She knew that if she didn’t do it her guards would do it for her, and not gently. Claire sat on the closest operation table and began to fold the sleeve over her right arm upwards. Both she and K had been provided with new clothes. Ugly white pants and an ugly long sleeve shirt. Claire didn’t mind as much as the teen did. Every piece of her collected jewelry was gone. All Claire missed was her hat because her brother had given it to her. It was the only thing she still had from him after he disappeared off the face of the earth.

When her task was complete, the doctor approached her, loaded syringe in a gloved hand. Claire couldn’t help the panic she felt at the sight of the dark red liquid. In it was Alice’s blood, and she had no idea what a straight injection of it and whatever it was mixed with would do to her. At least she was going first. If something went wrong with her, the doctor would surely not inflict that same punishment on the teen. Then again, the doctor did come near her with a sick smile.

Claire hadn’t been able to see it before, but now that the man was cleaning her arm with antiseptic he was no longer blocking a set of screens on the far wall. The images there were set up like some kind of surveillance system. The top right section showed an all-white room, and Claire’s mouth nearly fell open at what she saw inside.

Alice was lying on a cot, her eyes were closed as if in sleep, but Claire couldn’t tell. A second later, Claire knew she wasn’t sleeping. Alice turned her head and seemed to look straight into the camera – right at her. Before Claire could get a better look at the woman she hadn’t seen in almost a month, Dr. Isaacs noticed her stare and turned back to hit a button. The image was cut from the screen to reveal another. A hallway marked **4D**. In it was a collection of doors.

The doctor picked up the syringe and expelled some of the liquid to make sure there were no air bubbles. Nervous, Claire was tempted to swallow. She held it back, determined not to show this man her fear, especially considering he seemed to thrive on it. He took hold of her arm and placed the tip of the needle past her skin. In little more than a second, he pushed down the entire plunger. All the fluid was forced from the barrel and into her flesh.

Claire was certain that whatever affects the serum was supposed to have, that it would at least hurt. She felt nothing except the sting of the needle. The doctor studied her for a moment; then gave an inquiry.

“How do you feel? Be specific.”

Claire paused before she responded, waiting for some indication that would give her the answer they both sought. Still there was no difference.

“I don’t feel anything.”

“So, nothing has changed?”

She shook her head, and the doctor seemed off put by her response.

Claire watched him turn to face K-mart. “Your turn.”

The redhead wondered if now was her time to act while the doctor’s back was turned, but the soldiers were expecting that. They already moved in to intercept her before she could move. The two men pulled her down from the table and sat her on the floor against a wall.

She could do nothing as K-mart was put through the same procedure as she was. When Dr. Isaacs asked her how she felt, Claire was unsure if he would get a reply. K had been talking to her though every day. Since their capture, it was all the teen did. She’d even worked through her stutter.

K-mart did answer. “I don’t feel any different.”

Claire was relieved to hear that, but again the doctor was not.

He gave a heavy sigh and followed it with an order for the soldiers. “Take them both to the chamber in 4A. I’ll follow you down momentarily.”

They were walked through the hall to a four-way intersection. Claire saw that each was marked **4A** through **4D**. They’d come from 4B, so they turned right and continued on. The room they were escorted to was guarded by two soldiers, but it wasn’t a room at all. When the door was opened, she saw another long hallway that led to a second door defended by more men in combat suits.

The solider swiped his ID in a panel on the side of the door and then entered a four-digit code. Claire watched him, sure to catalogue the numbers in her head. _7-6-1-3._ The door swung inwards of its own accord. If Claire didn’t know they were in trouble before – she did when they were ushered inside.

Behind a shield of reinforced glass was an undead restrained to the wall by a set of manacles. He was a large specimen dressed in a grey jumpsuit. His hands were gloved, but his mouth opened hungrily at the sight of them. The creature had yellowing teeth, and his skin was nearly the same ailing shade as his clothes.

She couldn’t hear the sounds the infected prisoner made, but she was certain his moaning echoed inside the sealed space. The doctor’s previous words entered her mind, and now she understood. He meant to test the serum by letting the creature have its way with her – with them both.

Dr. Isaacs and three other men suddenly appeared behind her. Everyone but the doctor was dressed like they were about to be attacked by a dog from a K9 unit. They were padded head to toe, and the full body suit would protect them from the jaws of the undead. Claire needed to get free, but by now, the room was full of eight armed Umbrella soldiers, three bite-protection suited men, two scientists, and Dr. Isaacs.

_We are so fucking screwed._ It was the same thought that ran through her mind when she’d been trying to outrun the undead back in Colorado. Alice had saved them then, but she wasn’t coming now.

The doctor had a glint in his eyes when he saw her reaction to what awaited them.

With sarcastic glee he asked a question. “So, who would like to go down in history as being the first to test out my serum?”

Claire felt sick. It was made a million times worse with the word that was next out of K-mart’s mouth.

“Me.”

Claire was suddenly manic. She fought the grip of the soldier to get to the teen behind her. Dr. Isaacs was laughing, but she broke loose. Claire rushed to K-mart but was stopped midstride when the butt of a soldier’s gun was jammed into her ribs. The air was knocked out of her, and she fell hard to her knees. She was hauled back to her feet and restrained again.

Her head lowered in defeat as the doctor stopped his laughing to speak to the teen.

“So, little one, you are as curios as I?”

K-mart said nothing as she was guided to the reinforced glass door, but as she passed Claire she reached out to give the woman a hug. Thinking the move innocent, the soldiers allowed her to do it. Claire felt K’s arms wrap around her tightly. She could only return the embrace with one arm; her other hand was still being held behind her back. As the teen pulled away, she slipped something into her free hand.

Claire didn’t have to look to see that it was K’s bear claw removed from its throng. She redhead was amazed. Somehow, the teen had managed to keep it hidden all this time. She could’ve used it a lot sooner, and K was going to hear about it sooner still.

But Claire still had to do something the soldiers wouldn’t expect if she was going to get the upper hand. So she didn’t do anything. She didn’t fight. She just played the act of the conquered. The glass door opened, and the three suited men followed K inside.

The hold on Claire was still too strong. She couldn’t turn out of it yet, but then the soldier started to lose focus when the teen was put in front of the struggling creature.

One of the men took hold of K-mart’s hand as another grabbed her shoulder and moved her slowly toward the undead. The infected brute fought against his restraints and did everything he could to get close to the living meat he was offered. Everyone but Claire gave their complete attention to what was about to happen as K-mart’s forearm was forced into the reach of the creature.

Dr. Isaacs smirked. “You know what they say about curiosity, don’t you?”

The soldier holding Claire was distracted enough by the scene before him – that just as K was bitten – Claire twisted out of his grip and stabbed him in his unprotected neck with the claw. She’d cut through his jugular. When she pulled the sharp nail back, his throat gushed mass amounts of blood. The soldier released her arm to grasp at his bleeding flesh. A quiet, gurgling cry came from his lips. Before he could collapse to the ground, she took his submachine gun, and turned on Dr. Isaacs.

“She doesn’t talk much.” Claire fully extended her arm, gun in hand, as the doctor began to rotate around certainly sensing his death was near. “But _I_ can answer that for you.”

Claire squeezed the trigger on the automatic carbine and let the bullets fly. The nine-millimeter cartridges were expelled so quickly that Dr. Isaacs was shot three times before she moved to kill the other Umbrella employees. They were all down in seconds because Claire didn’t have to take the time to line up headshots – just punch holes in their torsos with lead. At the close distance, their armor was useless.

The only people remaining were the three men in suits hiding behind the reinforced glass, and K-mart who was as far away from the undead as she could be, holding her arm in pain. With a snarl, Claire walked into the space and killed the men as well as the undead still chained to the wall.

Claire let the gun fall to the floor as K-mart ran to her. She hugged the girl fiercely but kept it short. She was certain that reinforcements would soon arrive, either from hearing the shots or because they were probably being watched by a security camera. She took new weapons off the dead soldiers, and Dr. Isaacs’s ID badge; then set out with two goals in mind.

_Time to find Alice, and get the fuck off this ship…_

The pair ran for hallway 4D. It was the only idea Claire had for where Alice could be, but there were almost twenty doors to try. She tried to remember the one the camera had been focused on, then got the idea to look for the camera itself. Surely, it would still be pointed at the right door. At the far end of the hall was the black device. A bright red dot emanated from it signaling that it was in use. She sprinted for it with K on her heels.

When she was close enough to see what the camera was focused on, she followed its direction and found herself face to face with a door that looked like all the rest. She sent a silent prayer that she was at the correct one and that her pass and code would work. She swiped the ID, then had to enter the code. Panicked, her mind stumbled over the memory of the numbers.

_7-1…6…3…_

She tried it, but the keypad beeped failure. She grunted in frustration as K-mart called out to her.

“Hurry up – I can hear people coming!”

_What is it? 7…3-1-6?_

She tried again – another failure.

“Fuck!” she cursed and attempted to remember a third time.

_7…6-1-3. That’s it!_

She ran the ID through, and punched the code. This time the door opened.

Claire ran inside to find the blonde, but Alice was no longer blonde. Her hair was turning colors, her skin was pale, and she looked… defeated. Claire had prepared herself to face a wrathful Alice. This damaged, shell of a person before her – lying in bed and staring blankly at the ceiling – was not the woman she remembered. Never in her wildest dreams did Claire think that Alice could be broken. _They tortured her,_ she realized. In an instant, she was furious and heartbroken.


	22. Time of Death

_Where is he?_ Isaacs had never left her alone this long before. Then again, how would she know? She felt like a significant amount of time had passed, but she wasn’t sure. The brunette was used to waking and seeing Isaacs as soon as she did so.

He’d become very proud of his Project, and he told her that every day. Project Alice lived for those words, lived to make him happy. Maybe she’d done something wrong, and this was her punishment. She looked at the camera, willing Isaacs to notice her, and then closed her eyes again.

A funny thing happened when she closed her eyes. It happened on occasion. A wisp of a memory flashed behind her eyes, startling her to the point that she shot them open and stared at the ceiling. It made her heart race and her fingers twitch.

_Green for the anti-virus._

A muffled popping noise sounded from outside her cell. It was a familiar noise, but she couldn’t imagine what would make such a clamor. She didn’t think much of it; she was too worried. Isaacs must be furious with her, the way he was upset when Chairman Wesker denied him test subjects for the serum. The serum derived from her special blood. The serum that made Isaacs proud of her. Maybe something went wrong with it. Maybe her blood wasn’t the key like the doctor thought, but he’d never been wrong before.

Two sets of feet were suddenly running down the hallway. _Isaacs doesn’t run, and he’s always alone…like me._ Project Alice’s logical mind deduced that it wasn’t Isaacs now at the closed door, so she saw no reason to change what she was doing. Her ears perceived more sounds and voices, but she ignored them. If it wasn’t Isaacs, then it wasn’t worth her time.

Her cell door opened; then she heard the one thing she felt she’d never heard before. Her name – without its title.

“Alice-”

The brunette turned her head to look at the speaker, and there _she_ was – her anti-virus. Project Alice closed her eyes against the sight. It was a good thing she was already lying down. The red-haired woman pulled Project Alice into her arms, lifting her only enough so that the brunette’s cheek rested on a firm shoulder.

In an instant and in the warm embrace, her otherness, her title – everything that set her apart from humanity – was stripped from her. She was simply Alice, a woman who loved a fiery redhead and her silent charge. She didn’t need any more than that. How could she have forgotten?

Alice hugged back with intensity. The emotions of the moment threatened to overwhelm her. Then she heard K-mart’s voice.

“Claire! Soldiers are coming! A whole bunch of them.”

Alice released Claire and rose from the bed. She had only one feeling now. Anger. It was time to collect her dues. The rage she’d buried was resurrected to the point where it was beyond anything she’d felt before. Controlling it was a thin line, and it was possible that not even Claire and K-mart would be safe.

Alice heard orders given in the hallway. She brushed past Claire though the redhead tried to stop her.

“Alice, wait!” Claire held out a submachine gun, but Alice didn’t even look at the offered weapon. She strode right past K-mart, quivering with rage.

In the hall, was a team of sixteen Umbrella soldiers, and Alice’s first victims. They barely had time to aim before she sent a psychic blast through the hall, tearing apart the floor and walls to the point where it looked like a tornado had just ripped through the ship. Light from sparking wires reflected off twisted metal and broken concrete. The soldiers that had been standing a second ago were spread haphazardly amongst the debris.

Claire and K-mart emerged from the cell behind her, but Alice kept her attention forward. She was sick of all the whiteness – she was so ready for black. She walked to the nearest dead soldier and roughly stripped him from his bulletproof vest. Then she went to another and did the same. With the onyx pieces of protection in hand, she turned back to Claire and K-mart and handed them each one.

“Put it on.”

The two were quick to follow the direct order, but Alice didn’t wait for them. She charged forward, one foot in front of the other, willing them to take her directly to man she owed so much. She came to the four-way intersection and was sure to turn left like she’d done with Isaacs at her side every time before.

Claire called out to her. “Alice, wait! You’re going the wrong way! The stairs are straight ahead.”

“I’m not looking for the stairs,” she argued. “I want Isaacs.” Claire caught up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“You won’t find him. He’s dead.”

Alice spun on her heel and grabbed Claire with both hands by the collar. She forced her back, hard, until the woman collided with a wall.

"What?” she screamed, demanding an explanation.

Claire could hardly give it. Alice was steadily lifting her up, and the pressure on Claire’s throat made her words mangled.

“I…ki-killed him.”

“He wasn’t yours to kill!” She released Claire and continued on, leaving the woman to collapse to the floor as K-mart ran to her aid.

Isaacs might’ve been dead, but she still wanted to see his lifeless corpse with her own eyes. She came upon the door that had always been guarded. It was open. Alice walked through it, too curious to pass up the opportunity. It wasn’t a cell like she’d thought. It was a hallway that led to another open door. When she entered the far room, she was hit with the stench of death. There was a collection of bodies on the floor riddled with bullet holes. Apparently, Claire had killed more than she gave word to.

The doctor’s body, however, was not among the dead. Alice paused when she saw the corpse of an undead chained to a wall. _So, you were what they were keeping back here,_ she thought. She was about to go back, when she heard something stir behind her. Foolishly, Alice assumed that it was one of the survivors. She didn’t react as fast as she should have.

Her neck stung as a needle was driven into her flesh. She pulled the syringe out and looked at it in her hand. The plunger was completely pushed down. Whatever liquid that had been in it was now in her. She crushed the glass and metal in her grip and let it fall. Then she turned to see Isaacs leaning against a table. He was bleeding profusely from two wounds in his shoulder and one in his side, but he was still alive.

Isaacs was smiling like a fiend, but so was she. Her flesh began to burn at the point of entry, but she ignored it.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you, doctor.” Alice let her smirk fall and lowered her head to glare at him. She lifted a finger to accent her words. “You know – someone told me that the average human can survive losing forty to fifty percent of their blood.” She gave him a probing glance, but Isaacs raised his chin in defiance as she approached him. “If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say you’re close. Which is really too bad.” Striking out, she grabbed him by the throat. She squeezed enough to keep him in place and that was it. “I so wanted to bleed you dry myself.”

He started to laugh.

“I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you,” Alice threatened. “I’m about to make your death a million times more painful.”

Isaacs was not bothered by the threat. “I always knew I’d find death at your hands, but I also knew our fates were connected.”

Alice chuckled as she looked off. “You’re losing it, Isaacs. All that science has gone to your head.”

“Even so, you are my Project.”

She met his eyes at the title, and he continued.

“I created you, and now – I’ve destroyed you.”

Alice couldn’t ignore the burning any more. It was hot like a gasoline fire, almost as if the fuel was her blood and the flame was racing to get to her heart. She tightened the hand around Isaacs’s neck and spoke through clenched teeth.

“What have you done?”

“I injected you…with-the- _serum_ ,” he choked out. “Couldn’t-have…done-it…without you.”

The serum – Alice had forgotten. All the torture her bloodletting had been done for was to make a cure, and now it had been used against her. No matter. Isaacs would still find death at her hands. Or, more specifically, with the pressure that was filling her skull as her blue eyes dilated.

“Wait,” he sputtered. “I have…a parting gift. A choice.”

Alice cut her focus short as the man raised his hand. A black remote was in his hold.

“The code to purge this facility is 7-9-5.”

She didn’t take the device, but she did smile as the pupils of her eyes expanded again.

Isaacs began to struggle in her grip. First one drop of blood fell from his nose, then another. The red liquid cascaded down his chin and began to surface beneath his eyelids, spilling out like the man was in tears. The warm fluid dropped onto her hand as Isaacs’s ears and mouth bled. His face twisted in agony until he died. Alice released him and let his body fall to the ground.

The pain of her vendetta brought her to her knees as she clutched her pounding skull. She gasped, too overtaken by pain to hold it back. When she recovered slightly, she let her hands slide down her face. The right one smeared the doctor’s blood on her skin and mixed it with her own blood that dripped from her nose. She crawled to Isaacs and took the remote from his death grip.

Slowly, Alice rose from her knees. She’d gotten her revenge, but at what cost? Her anger had gotten the best of her, and Claire had been the one to suffer for it. _What have I done?_

When she made her way back into the hall, Claire and K-mart were nowhere to be found, but gunfire sounded to her left. She ran to the four-way intersection and saw a sign for the stairs at the end of the left corridor. Alice took the stairs three at a time, climbing two flights as her burning heart pumped with adrenaline.

There was a single body at the entrance to the second floor, and another three in the hall when she opened the door to it. She continued to stay on Claire’s trail, following the dead Umbrella soldiers like a bloodhound. It seemed the two survivors were making their way to the Osprey hanger. Alice prayed that she could catch up before they were outmatched.

Luckily, it wasn’t far. She turned a corner and found herself face to face with a giant door, an Umbrella logo painted in vibrant red and white a few feet above her head. The symbol seemed to stare down at her – to judge her for all she’d done, as creators often do.

She waited for the door to open and was greeted with more stark-white space. Alice ran on, unconcerned that it seemed to be an empty room. She was suddenly at another door, the one she knew would lead her to the hanger. When it opened, she saw Claire and K-mart running to the nearest airship.

Almost as if she knew she was being followed, Claire looked behind her. Their eyes met, and Alice froze. The message in Claire’s green eyes said one word clear as day – _monster_. It was more than enough to make Alice turn back around as she grimaced with anguish and clenched a fist.

An upwards of twenty Umbrella soldiers entered on her heels as she heard the engine of the Osprey start. Alice didn’t have any time to focus on the soldiers individually so she sent a psychic blast before they could fire on the craft. The force jostled her brain, but it also decommissioned her opponents. She realized her powers were seriously compromised by the serum invading her altered blood. If she had to do that again, it was likely she would fail or she wouldn’t survive.

Ten more soldiers appeared and began to shoot at the Osprey and at her. She wasn’t concerned with herself, even as two shots found their mark on her body. One in her right forearm, the other grazing a thigh. She would happily die to make sure Claire and K-mart got safely off the ship. Alice sent another psychic wave, tearing more of the structure apart, but leaving a few of the men alive.

She tried to focus again, but it was too much. She couldn’t gather the effort. As the men staggered to their feet, Alice fell from hers. She crawled to a body nearby. With her free hand, she grabbed a submachine gun. One of the men fired at her, and she returned it. He collapsed to the floor – all his bullets inaccurate. Alice dispatched the second before he could do likewise and rose to one knee. The final man, however, fired once before she killed him. His nine-millimeter shot tore right through the left side of her upper chest.

She fell backwards and was hit with a beautiful view of the sea. The wind from the rotor blades picked up immensely, signaling time for takeoff. Alice knew she was done. There were no more enemies to fight. Both Claire and K-mart were about to be safe from Umbrella – and from her – forever. All Alice had to do was make a decision.

The blood left her body much quicker than any time Isaacs had stuck her with needles, but somehow the physical pain was much less. The same could not be said for how hurt she was over what she’d done to Claire and the fact that she’d never have a chance to make it right.

Alice could still hear the propeller blades and feel the wind from them, but it made her wonder why Claire hadn’t taken off yet. She tried to roll over from her back and look at the Osprey, but mid-motion, an arm wrapped beneath her torso. Another went under her legs. It was obvious who it was.

“No, Claire. Leave me,” Alice begged.

The redhead picked her up anyway and cradled Alice against her. Silently, Claire carried her to the Osprey. Just as they got in, a new team of soldiers erupted into the hanger. Their shots ricocheted off the machine as Claire set her down. Alice watched the woman sprint to the controls.

K-mart was at her side and putting pressure on the wound in her chest with what looked to be a torn up bit of parachute. The blood soaked the fabric, but its flow was slowing. A hazy moment later, they were nearly pitched backwards as the Osprey rocketed out of the ship.

Alice was so tired, but it seemed the T-virus still in her veins had other plans for her. Her wounds were gradually healing, though it was taking much longer. She had thought she was going to die. Alice accepted that, but for some reason Claire saved her. She couldn’t figure it out; she was too exhausted to anyway. When the aircraft seemed to steady, K helped her up so they could sit in the chairs along the inner Osprey wall. The teen had yet to release Alice’s hand. Alice smiled lightly at the girl, but it wasn’t returned.

She looked K-mart over. The teen seemed fine until Alice caught sight of blood staining her sleeve.

Alice found the strength to speak. “K? Are you hurt?”

The teen bit her lip and pulled her hand out of Alice’s. Claire was suddenly approaching them.

Alice looked at the unattended cockpit, and Claire subdued her worry.

“We’re on autopilot.” Claire kneeled before the girl, now completely ignoring Alice and speaking again. “Let me see.”

Alice watched as K held out her arm. Claire gently pushed the sleeve up, and Alice’s heart plummeted at what she saw. Gruesome teeth marks were indented and torn into her skin. She realized that it must’ve been the chained undead that had caused such a wound. Then she remembered why. Isaacs had made an inoculation. Surely, he’d given it to the girl before.

Alice spoke up, desperately wishing. “The serum-”

Claire cut her off, viciously. “Didn’t work. The bastard injected both of us with it, but was only able to test it on her.” The redhead swallowed and added a quiet command. “Look at her.”

Alice did. K was paling, her skin was wetting with sweat, and she had circles under her eyes. Still, something was screaming at her that Claire was wrong. She had to be, but Alice hung her head with pessimistic knowing. Then she remembered something and began to laugh with relief.

“No.” She met K’s hazel eyes. “You’re fine. I never sensed your infection – so you can’t be infected.”

“What?” Claire asked hopeful.

“The serum is working,” Alice explained. “It’s just running through its course.”

Claire’s relief rolled down her cheek in a fast, hot tear. Alice was so tempted to wipe it away. Claire did it before Alice had a chance and got back to her feet.

“I have to go back to the controls.”

Claire walked to cockpit, but as she did so, Alice spoke to her with a smile.

“Didn’t know you could fly this thing, Claire.”

Without even turning around Claire responded, animosity in her voice. “You don’t know a lot of things.”

_Stupid,_ Alice chided herself. She let out a heavy sigh. She was ready to just drop her head in her hands, but one of them was still clutched around something. She looked at the black device as she recalled Isaacs’s last words.

The remote along with the code he gave her would obliterate the _Arcadia._ All of its crew, soldiers, and scientists. All records of research, but more importantly, it would terminate every last ounce of the serum that saved K-mart’s life. Alice had to decide quickly before any of the other Ospreys were launched after them.

Entering the numbers meant their complete safety and just that much more revenge for her. But it also meant the end of the vaccine that could save humanity. Isaacs had given her this choice. She didn’t understand why, but the fate of mankind was in her hands – and her hands alone.

She punched in the code, and K-mart watched her curiously. Before she confirmed the entry she looked up to find Claire. The woman was sitting at the controls, gaze straight ahead.

_I think this may be the most evil thing I’ve ever done._

She hit enter.

Claire redhead was right; she was a monster – but she was _Claire’s_ monster.


	23. Frozen in Time

The black remote fell from Alice’s grip as the Osprey was hit with shockwaves from the explosion. The aircraft’s warning system kicked in a second later.

_Turbulence… Turbulence… Turbulence…._

The disembodied voice carried on, but Alice was too tired to give it much thought. She wasn’t sure if it was the consequences of her last action, or the exhaustion she felt from what she’d suffered through, but the turmoil had caught up with her. She was covered in blood, and her body was still revolting against her as the serum fought her unique infection. Every muscle was heavy and laced with fire. All she wanted to do was sleep.

It was a struggle to keep her eyes open, so she didn’t. She wasn’t sure which way she’d fall when she passed out, but she didn’t care so long as oblivion was within her reach. Her consciousness didn’t slip away – it plummeted.

Sometime later, Alice was awake, but she wasn’t near brave enough to open her eyes. She could just tell she was still in her cell; that a white infinity would greet her. Then her mind started to drift back to last time she was aware, and she remembered that she wasn’t on the _Arcadia_ any more. She opened her eyes to find she wasn’t on the Osprey either.

She had no idea where she was, but she was in a room. The walls were made of wood, and there was a soft bed beneath her. She looked down at herself. A blanket covered most of her, but she wasn’t wearing white. Alice was in a spare set of her clothes. The familiar, black fabric was a comfort like no other.

She listened, but the only thing she could glean from the cold air was silence. Alice felt deaf and blind. She sat up on the mattress. Her body moved with stiffness, the likes of which, she had never experienced before. There was a deep ache to her chest. Recalling that she’d been shot there, she pulled down her shirt collar to see a white bandage placed over the wound. She removed the bandage slightly and saw the injury was stitched up but clean.

It took a moment for Alice to remember what that meant. One word fell from her lips when she did so.

“Human.”

_I’m human,_ Alice thought as she dropped her head in her hands. She was human, and it hurt like hell. Her selfish actions had damned humanity, and the weight of her guilt was crushing her. It was like every past mistake, every flaw, every inadequate choice all amounted to this – to suffering.

There, in the unknown room with her hands over her face, Alice convulsed once, and then again as warm liquid wet her skin. She was crying, hard. It was something she hadn’t really done for the sheer sake that she could not. She’d been too emotionally inept to release her feelings in such a way – until now. The tears made her hands shake as they remained firmly pressed to her face. She clamped one over her mouth to hold back the sobs she knew were coming. Her body rocked with the force as a whimper broke loose, and she put her other hand on top of the first. Her wound hurt with the tremor, but it was still nothing like her emotional anguish.

With bitter clarity, Alice recalled that the very hands she was trying to silence herself with were used to hurt Claire. _She never should have saved me._

Suddenly, she heard a noise she’d come to know as danger. She whipped her head up as the fast click of nails on a flat surface grew close to the door left slightly ajar. Alice looked under her pillow for a handgun, knowing that she would’ve placed one there if she could have. There was nothing beneath it. She tried to rise from the bed, but it was too late. Her speed was nonexistent, and her chest ached against the motion.

Alice didn’t know why she was fighting it. She thought she should just let undead beast kill her and be done. But even a human Alice was not a coward. Painstakingly, she brought her legs to the edge of the bed and set her feet on the floor. Just as she was about to rise, the door opened to reveal a puppy, and an alive one at that.

She couldn’t believe her eyes. With a weak laugh, she looked at the lanky mass of fur as it ran to her. The young dog was a Saint Bernard, compassion only matched by the size of its massive paws. The pup let out a whine when it reached the edge of the bed and Alice didn’t pick it up.

“No,” she told it. “Absolutely not. I _hate_ dogs.”

The Saint Bernard whined again, its tail lightly wagging. Already, Alice knew she was lying about her feelings for dogs. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes before conceding to the dog. The movement to pick it up hurt, but she did it anyway. The brown, white, and black puppy immediately set out to lick the salt from her face as she tried everything to get out its reach.

“No, no. See, this is why!”

She was finally able to subdue the dog once she found the sensitive spot behind its ear. The brunette scratched it, and the pup collapsed onto her in contentment. _God-damn ridiculous.... Only K-mart would want such a thing._ At that thought Alice heard a set of footsteps. Her heart jumped and then fell at the notion that it might be Claire. It wasn’t.

K-mart appeared in the door frame next, instant smile on her face.

“We were– _I was_ wondering when you’d wake up.” K amended her comment to leave Claire out of it, and Alice noticed. The teen crossed over to the bed, and the dog happily welcomed the extra attention as she began to pet it.

“I see you’ve met Paco.” K smiled as the puppy’s tail began to thump on the mattress.

“Paco?” Alice raised an eyebrow. “You let Claire name him – didn’t you?”

K laughed. “No! I named him.”

Alice was forced to sniffle again. It hurt to speak of Claire in such a lighthearted way. The teen looked her over with worried eyes as Alice recalled K’s injury.

“How’s your arm?”

“It’s fine.”

Alice smiled dimly. Her blood sacrifice had led to at least one good thing.

She debated whether or not to just go back to sleep. She was still tired, but that was a coward’s way out. It wouldn’t save her from what she had to face, only delay it.

“How long have I been out?” she questioned.

“Four days.”

_Four days, and I’m not fully healed yet._ Alice knew the T-virus was strong, but Isaacs’s desire for a perfect serum was strong as well. She wondered just how human she really was. Finding out would have to wait. There were still other things she wanted to know.

“Where are we?”

At that inquiry, the teen brightened up a little more than Alice liked.

“Resurrection, Alaska!”

Alice shook her head. “You didn’t-”

“Heck yeah, I did! I mean there’s no one else here but us. Well, us and Paco.”

At the sound of his name, the dog’s ears perked. He looked dwarfed by the differing proportions of his big head and small ears. Unconsciously, Alice began to rub behind them again.

The teen spoke, this time much softer. “What happened to you, Alice?”

She realized that she would have to tell this story to Claire eventually, so Alice figured the girl would be good practice. She swallowed once, but before she began she had one more question.

“How long were we on the ship?”

“About a month.”

_A month…._ It was a month of constantly being bled to near death, then given the chance to convalesce in an unconscious coma, only to repeat the action again and again. Still, that was no excuse to hurt Claire. There would never be any excuse for that.

“When you two were taken, I broke free from Umbrella’s hold and knocked out the satellite they were using to control me. I killed some of the soldiers before Isaacs could stop me. He threatened me with your lives… so I surrendered.” Alice paused to swallow. “I can’t say I recall being there for a month, but I was at Isaacs’s command the entire time. He took my blood to turn it into the serum he gave you.”

“Your blood?” K-mart interrupted after her eyebrows drew together.

“It was the key to the serum – the only reason it worked.”

The teen didn’t need the details she was about to give, but she wanted to run it by the girl before she spoke to Claire. She needed some kind of indication of the reaction she could get.

“Isaacs took all the blood he could from me. It was constant. He barely let me recover before he did it again. I admit – I forgot who I was in all that pain.” She looked down, indicating that her telling was over.

“I’m so sorry, Alice. I don’t know what to say…. I mean, who would’ve thought that words could fail _me_ of all people?”

At that the older woman was forced to smile, and K returned it in full.

“You’re a good kid, you know that?”

“Oh, no,” K feigned annoyance with a groan. “Don’t go back to calling me a kid.”

“All right,” Alice chuckled. “I won’t.”

The brunette was like an addict. Every time the conversation turned light, she felt she had to bring it back down. Her next questions would certainly do just that.

“Where’s Claire?”

“She’s out right now, but she’ll be back.”

Alice let out a pain-spiked sigh. “She hates me, doesn’t she?”

“She doesn’t hate you. She’s just hurt.”

“What?” Alice wanted K’s last confession out of her ears; she wanted it out _now_. She knew she’d been rough with Claire, but that Claire was physically hurt from it was something else entirely.

“No – no. Alice, she’s fine. I meant she’s not physically hurt, but emotionally.” The teen looked off not really seeming to pay attention to her next words. “Well, there’s some bruising, but-”

_Fuck!_ She cut the girl off even as K-mart tried to backtrack.

“What have I done, K?” Alice didn’t care if K saw her cry, so the tears fell again.

“It’s not that bad-”

“You were _there._ You saw what I did!” The dog snuggled closer into Alice’s hand, almost as if he was trying to will her back to serenity. She felt it, but it didn’t work.

“Alice. Alice – take a damn breath.”

The brunette nearly laughed at her own words thrown back in her face, and K smiled. Alice did as she was commanded and let her breathing calm her back down.

When she was settled, she gave the teen a comforting smile. Then abruptly the dog jerked his head up in the direction of the door. Alice hadn’t heard a thing, but she wouldn’t with her old, human senses. She followed the dog’s gaze as did the teen, but she saw nothing. Alice didn’t realize K was armed with a pistol until she caught the girl put a hand on it from the corner of her eye.

“It’s probably nothing,” K said as she rose from the bed. “I’ll check it out,” she whispered.

“Not without me, you won’t,” the older woman argued as she moved the dog off her legs. “Help me up.”

K guided Alice off the mattress. Then Alice held out her hand for the girl’s weapon.

“Hand it over,” she commanded, her eyes still on the door.

The teen bent to her will with an easy trust and gave her the pistol. Alice was instantly at home with the metal in her hand. She broke away from K’s support and took lead. The place was completely foreign to her. The interior was poorly furnished, but the wooden walls were inviting.

K spoke up quietly behind her. “Seriously, Alice. This place doesn’t have any infected. It has life. I mean, we found Paco here.”

The words weren’t as comforting as Alice thought they would be. If there were no undead to fight, what purpose would she have? Where would she turn when the anger got to be too much? Claire’s face tortured her mind, but she’d die before she hurt Claire again.

Still, she kept expecting her blood to sing as they checked the cabin. It was a weird way to take a tour of the structure, but she did see everything. K’s room, where apparently Claire had been staying with the girl, proven by the blankets and pillow on the floor. Next was the bathroom, living room, small dining area, and finally, the kitchen. The house was empty. Whatever had alerted the dog was gone or had never been there in the first place.

“I told you it was nothing,” K said.

Alice still wasn’t satisfied. She walked to one of the windows in the living room and looked out. The cabin was surrounded by woods, at least on this side. It was a beautiful day. The sunlight was scattered by the few leaves still on the trees outside and spliced by the needles of large, green pines. Alice suddenly felt wetness on her left breast. She looked down. Her wound had been opened; she could see the blood staining her clothes even blacker than they already were.

“Shit,” she cursed.

“What is it?”

Alice ignored K’s inquiry. She put pressure over the wound. She didn’t feel any warmness on her back, so at least the exit wound wasn’t bleeding. It wasn’t much, but she’d need to change the bandage, and maybe even reset some stitches.

Alice turned back to the teen, and K-mart gasped at the blood staining the older woman’s hand.

“Jesus Christ, Alice!”

The older woman laughed. “You sound just like Claire.”

“Good!” K responded and began to guide Alice back to the master bedroom. “Maybe then you’ll listen to me when I tell you to get back in bed.”

Alice rolled her eyes at the instruction, but she ended up letting K help her change the bandage when they got there. The damage was really very little. Not enough that any stitches had to be pulled out and redone, just enough to cause some surface bleeding.

She didn’t stay in bed much after that, much to K’s displeasure, but Paco’s good fortune. He received a fair amount of her attention. Alice tried to pawn it off that she was just too bored to not pet the dog, but she found it soothing. She was still very weak. The month of torture, the bullet wound, and the serum at battle with her blood didn’t allow her to remain up for long periods of time. She still paced when she could though. It was nearing nightfall, and Claire had still not returned. Alice was beyond worried; she was frantic.

She was back to pacing. Paco watched her from the bed. Suddenly, his head jerked up from resting on his paws. Alice saw the reaction and immediately withdrew a pistol K had given to her after she returned the teen’s. The near extinction of her superhuman abilities was already beginning to wear on her. She wasn’t used to being human. She wasn’t used to being weak.

Alice was done waiting for Claire to appear. K-mart was in the kitchen making food, and while the brunette was starved, she was craving something else much more. Earlier, the teen had said that Claire was checking out an abandoned town about two miles back. Alice put the gun in her waistband and snuck out of the house, knowing full well that K-mart would never let her leave. The evening air was approaching freezing, but she wouldn’t normally need a coat so she didn’t bother with one. She was surprised to see the Hummer parked out front, though. K had also said that Claire had taken the SUV to go there. Alice walked up to the vehicle, but no one was inside it.

She wondered when Claire had returned. She never heard the vehicle pull up, but she had fallen in and out of sleep when she wasn’t petting the dog, or pacing. It suddenly struck Alice that maybe Claire didn’t want to be found. She sighed as she set her elbows on the hood, and once again, put her head in her hands. In her defeat, she was frozen.


	24. Only for a Moment

Claire had been watching Alice for some time without the brunette’s knowledge. She’d returned hours ago but just couldn’t bring herself to go inside. Now that Alice was awake, Claire was apprehensive. She took another long sigh as she pulled out a cigarette from the carton in her back pocket. She’d given up smoking right around the time she found K-mart. The teen gave her something she’d thought was long gone. They were family.

_“Claire, I’m sorry I never talked to you. I tried all the time, but I just couldn’t do it. Then Alice came along, and I don’t know-” K shrugged. “She just seemed so approachable.”_

_The redhead chuckled. “Approachable is hardly a word I would use to describe Alice.”_

_K smiled back at her. “You love her, don’t you?”_

_Claire broke off from the teen’s inquisitive gaze. The simple answer was no. The long and complicated answer was while Alice could be terrifying, Claire always felt safe in her presence. While Alice had done unforgivable things, Claire would always be the one to forgive her. While Claire had lived without Alice before, she knew, that just like Alice, she wouldn’t be able to after. The simple answer was a lie. The long and complicated one – was love._

_Claire sighed as she looked around their cell again. Her thoughts were a constant pain where Alice was concerned. Claire missed her._

_“I do, K,” she finally answered. “I really do.”_

Claire put the filter in her mouth and dug around for her lighter. She pulled the plastic container out of her jean pocket and brought it up to face-level. She struck the metal igniter with her calloused thumb. When she had a flame, she sucked in the fumes, waiting for the cigarette to catch. She became lightheaded as nicotine and smoke played in her lungs. The end of the cigarette glowed orange, and she released the lighter’s trigger at the same time she removed the cigarette from her lips. She only held the poisonous smoke for a moment before she expelled it.

She was a lot more like Alice than she ever thought. Alice may have had drinking, but Claire could be just as self-damaging. She took another drag, this time much longer than the first. She didn’t know she’d missed the simple action of smoking. It was a habit she picked up in school to combat what she thought was stress at the time. Now, she knew stress. Stress was not knowing when the next meal would be, while trying to avoid being something else’s next meal. Still, that wasn’t kind of anxiety she was wrestling with.

She flicked her cigarette to knock off the ash as one word played over in her mind.

_Alice.…_

_Speak of the devil,_ she thought as the woman suddenly emerged from the cabin. Claire put out her cigarette, not wanting the smoldering orange light or the smell of smoke to bring Alice to her. She wasn’t ready yet.

She watched Alice look around, but the brunette never turned her way. Instead, she seemed fixed on the Hummer. Alice buried her face in her hands on the hood, and Claire let out a silent sigh. True, she was bruised, but Alice seemed to be hurting much, much more.

Alice suddenly picked herself up from the Beast and took a few steps back. Claire watched the injured woman square her shoulders and stare at the vehicle. _What the fuck is she doing?_ Claire thought. Then the Hummer started to shake. _Oh, hell no._ Claire was instantly reminded of the Mustang, but that was nothing like the power Alice was showing now. Before, Alice could lift an entire car into the air. Now, she couldn’t even make the Hummer levitate an inch off the ground.

Alice let out a sharp cry of pain, and it spurred Claire forward at a sprint. The woman collapsed to the ground before Claire could reach her. Alice saw her and forced up a hand.

“Stop,” she pleaded. Her voice was desperate, and Claire could tell she was fighting pain.

She froze a few feet from Alice, watching in agony as Alice moved her feet beneath her to stand on her own while leaving her hand out to keep Claire away. The brunette teetered and had to place her hands on the Hummer for support. She didn’t really understand why Alice was losing the abilities she had. It was probably because of something Dr. Isaacs had done to her, again.

Once Alice seemed settled on the vehicle, Claire watched her turn around so that they were facing each other. Suddenly, K appeared in the doorway of the candlelit cabin, wooden spoon in hand and Paco at her feet.

“Is everything.…” The teen let her question drop at what she saw before her. “Dinner’s in five.” She went back inside, shutting the door behind her, but Claire thought she saw a smile grace the girl’s lips first. Claire looked back at the woman before her.

Alice stared into her eyes, and she could’ve sworn that she saw regret in those cobalt eyes.

“Claire?” The brunette spoke softly, almost as if she even took a breath, Claire would startle. But Claire wasn’t going anywhere.

Alice already had her full attention, but she tilted her head to the side slightly in reaction. The brunette took a nervous swallow and began to wring her hands, but she never looked away. Claire watched tears fall down the woman’s cheeks.

“I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

She could easily see that Alice was telling the truth, and now it was Claire’s turn to regret her actions. She had been fully prepared to leave Alice behind on the _Arcadia._ Alice wasn’t the only one who let anger get the best of them. When it became apparent that the brunette was intent to sacrifice herself, Claire took the opportunity without a second thought.

_She choked as she tried to get her breath back. The pain in her throat coupled with the ache in her back made it difficult. K was instantly at her side and trying to help her to her feet. She took the teen’s outstretched hand and pulled herself up. Alice was already gone from her sight._ Forget her, _Claire thought, anger plaguing her mind. K had to be her first priority; she’d always come before everything else._ She’ll catch up – or she won’t.

_They ran to the stairs, intent to get to hanger. She cleared all of the Umbrella soldiers in their way with a slew of strategically placed bullets. They made it to the white hanger, and she made K take the lead. Suddenly, Claire heard a sound behind her. She turned, ready to shoot. It was Alice. Her heart ached for the brunette to join them, but somehow, seeing the right side of her face smeared with blood reminded her of a monster. It repulsed her._

_Alice immediately turned on her heel as if she’d changed her mind. Then a whole team of Umbrella soldiers entered the hanger, and it seemed as though the brunette would rather stay and fight._ That’s her choice.

_Claire ran to the Osprey and went straight to the controls. It took her a few seconds to find the correct switches, but she flipped the right ones as she came across them. The turbine engines started up, and she looked for the button that would launch them from the hanger. K wasn’t saying anything, and for once, Claire was happy with her silence. She didn’t need K to tell her to that she was going to regret what she was about to do – she already knew._

_She found the button, but didn’t press it yet._

I think this may be the biggest mistake of my life.

_She didn’t hit the button. Instead, she stood from the pilot’s seat and ran out of the Osprey to see that Alice had lost. Alice was a monster, but she was_ her _monster._


	25. Time is of the Essence

“I forgive you.”

“Don’t,” Alice begged. She truly believed she didn’t deserve it. “Don’t forgive me again. I can’t take it.” She watched Claire shake her head.

“Every single day, Alice.”

It was the same thing the woman had said to her during the meteor shower. It felt like forever ago. She wasn’t that person anymore. Probably hadn’t been that person since. Now, her powers were all but gone; only a whisper remained. With their near absence, humanity returned with a vengeance. Regret and sorrow accompanied her resurrecting soul, attacking her heart and tearing at her mind.

Claire moved in closer to her, and while Alice still wanted to keep the redhead at bay out of fear, she realized that her terror was irrational. She was already resolved to never hurt Claire again. Claire drew near, and Alice looked for the apprehension in her as well. There was none.

“All the time we’ve been together, I’ve only given you reason to fear me,” Alice stated like the fact was clear as day.

“That’s not true…. And even if it was,” Claire put a hand on Alice’s cheek and brushed away a falling tear, “it wouldn’t stop me from loving you.”

Alice shut her eyes; not so much to keep the words out, but to keep them in. They were only closed for a second when she felt Claire’s lips on her own. The kiss started out soft; neither of them taking more than the other was giving. Alice felt the intensity grow in her chest. Slowly, she lifted her arms to the small of Claire’s back, fingers dropping just under the waistband of Claire’s jeans. Forced backwards into the Hummer, Alice took the light pain of hitting the vehicle in stride. Claire made her touch gentler as she slid her hands from Alice’s collarbone, gently touching the bullet wound, to the back of the Alice’s shoulders.

Claire pulled her mouth away first, resting her head on Alice’s. The brunette still had her eyes closed, and she would’ve bet her handgun that Claire did too.

Her sweet voice entered Alice’s mind again.

“No more drinking.” Claire kissed the corner of her mouth. “No more self-destruction.” She kissed the other side. “Just let me love you.” She brought their foreheads together again as Alice beamed.

She opened her eyes, hoping to meet Claire’s green ones and was not disappointed.

“I’ll do you one better,” she promised. “I’ll love you back.”

This time, Alice kissed Claire. She felt the woman smile into it. It was much longer than the first and more passionate still.

Suddenly Paco was at their heels, begging for attention. Claire grinned at the dog as she spoke.

“K must’ve sent him out here to get us for dinner.”

Alice chuckled. “Smart girl. You remember what happened the last time she interrupted us….” Amused, she watched Claire’s face blush in the dim light.

There was still one more thing Alice wanted to talk about, though. She needed to tell Claire what happened with Isaacs; that she was limited – and not just in her abilities.

“Claire, before we go in.…” She took Claire’s hand in hers. “Isaacs gave me the serum. I’m not invincible anymore, but I’m sure you guessed that.” Alice was suddenly struck with a very morbid, yet uplifting, thought. _I can die in her arms._ Alice was nearly crying again, and while they would’ve been happy tears, she held them back. She still had to finish telling Claire why she acted the way she did.

“When we were there…. Before, when Isaacs came for me.…” Alice had already told K all this, so she didn’t know why it was so hard for her now. Luckily, Claire silenced her before she could butcher the telling any more.

“I already know, Alice.” She intertwined the fingers of their joined hands before she continued sheepishly. “I, um, heard you and K earlier. At least right until Paco almost got me busted.”

Alice laughed; happy the tension was disappearing into the night. She led Claire inside, and when the teen saw them together, she tried to hide her reaction. Alice wasn’t having any of it, and she knew Claire wouldn’t either. The second she saw a tear on the girl’s cheek she called to her.

“Come here, K.”

The girl sniffled and did what she was asked. Claire was the first to envelop the girl in a hug. Alice wasn’t far behind. She put an arm around each of them, and they both buried their heads into the crook of her neck.

Before the outbreak, Alice had a chance to save the world from the deadly practices of a powerful corporation. But she failed, and her actions put the world in jeopardy. Then, Dr. Isaacs turned her into the very weapon that could destroy Umbrella, but she failed again.

Finally, two survivors – a fiery redhead and her silent charge – gave her the chance to be the hero she’d forgotten she had the potential to be. Though they gave her so much, the hunger for redemption began to gnaw at her insides. The time to sate it was of the essence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. This story will always have a special place in my heart. It truly brought me to writing and has become the foundation of my career as an author. If you liked it, look up Gal Pal Publishing sometime.
> 
> Cheers to my readers and friends, old and new.


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